Bloody Mary
Vodka and tomato juice seasoned with lemon, Worcestershire, hot sauce, celery salt and pepper. Savoury, spicy and endlessly adjusted.
- MethodBuilt
- GlassHighball glass
- IceCubes
- Strengthabout 10.6% ABV
- BaseVodka
- Tastespicy, sour, refreshing
Recipe
| 45 ml 1½ oz | Vodka |
| 90 ml 3 oz | Tomato juice |
| 15 ml ½ oz | Fresh lemon juice |
| 4 dashes | Worcestershire sauce |
| 2 dashes | Hot pepper sauce |
| 1 pinch | Celery salt |
| 1 pinch | Salt and black pepper |
Garnish. A crisp celery stick to stir with and a lemon wedge on the rim.
Method
- Put all the ingredients in a mixing glass or shaker tin with ice.
- Roll the mixture back and forth between two tins five or six times to chill and mix without frothing the tomato.
- Strain into a highball glass filled with fresh ice.
- Garnish with the celery stick and lemon wedge, and taste for seasoning.
About the Bloody Mary
The Bloody Mary is a savoury drink: vodka in seasoned tomato juice, sharpened with lemon and given heat and depth by Worcestershire sauce, hot sauce, pepper and celery salt. It is the classic brunch and hangover drink, and everyone seasons it differently.
History
Earliest record 1939: Newspaper columns in New York, including Lucius Beebe in the New York Herald Tribune
Documented
Vodka and tomato juice was being served as a "Bloody Mary" in New York by late 1939: a newspaper column in November that year mentions it at the 21 Club as a hangover cure, and Lucius Beebe's column in the New York Herald Tribune on 2 December 1939 credits the comedian George Jessel with it, as half tomato juice and half vodka. Fernand Petiot, bartender at the St. Regis Hotel's King Cole Bar from the 1930s, said in a 1964 interview with The New Yorker that he had developed the seasoned version and that Jessel's original was plain vodka and tomato juice.
Legend and lore
Petiot also said he first made the drink at Harry's New York Bar in Paris in 1921. No record from the time supports this. The many stories about who "Mary" was, from Mary I of England to a Chicago bar called the Bucket of Blood, are guesses.
Disputed or unclear: Who first mixed vodka and tomato juice, and who first seasoned it, are both disputed.
Variations
- Red Snapper. Gin in place of vodka; the name used at the St. Regis for a time.
- Bloody Maria. Tequila in place of vodka.
- Caesar. The Canadian version made with tomato and clam juice and a celery-salt rim.
- Virgin Mary. Leave out the vodka; the seasoning carries it.
Bartender's notes
- Roll rather than shake; shaking tomato juice makes it thin and frothy.
- Mix the seasoning to taste before adding the vodka, then check again at the end.
