The Bloody Mary is often served in the morning because it was originally intended to cure hangovers. The name most likely refers to the blood red color of the drink.
The Bloody Mary is a very popular cocktail that contains basically vodka, tomato juice, and a variety of spices. It is served virtually world wide. The classic Bloody Mary is usually vodka, tomato juice and Tabasco sauce and/or Worcestershire Sauce (in England, called Worcester Sauce). These generally are added lightly, particularly the Tabasco. Usually that is counted in drops. Depending on the size of the glass, you might add 1 drop for mild, 2-3 drops for medium spicy, 4-5 drops for a total wake-up and generally 6 or more drops destroys it, and you. If the glass is small enough, 5 to 6 drops could blow some people’s heads off. The Worcestershire Sauce is a milder and quite good tasting version of the Tabasco blend which can be added. Worcestershire Sauce and Tabasco are sometimes used together at roughly 4 drops of Worcester to 1 drop Tabasco. The Bloody Mary is most often served with a celery stalk, and there is a variety that might include a pinch of celery power.
The Bloody Mary is one of the least complicated drink to mix, but over the years many variations have come along. For one thing, there is variety in the flavor of both Vodka and Tomato Juice. They are definitely the first basis of the flavoring of a Bloody Mary. If either of those two ingredients tastes sub-par or strange the Bloody Mary will taste sub par or strange. Generally the more unflavored or pure your vodka and tomato juice are the more pleasing your Bloody Mary will be for your private home or restaurant / bar guests.
To remain a ’true’ Bloody Mary, albeit a variation, you can also add very small amounts of beef consomme or bouillon, horseradish, celery, olive, salt, black pepper, cayenne pepper, lemon juice, celery salt, plus, of course, salt and pepper..
The Bloody Mary probably goes back to Paris in 1921 at The New York Bar (later called Harry’s New York Bar) in Paris frequented by Ernest Hemingway and so many American expatriates. Fernand Petiot who worked at the bar is recognized by many as the inventory of the drink. Credit is often given to George Jessel as the inventor of the Bloody Mary drink in 1939. Jessel seems to have made it with half vodka and half tomato juice, a proportion that is way out of line with current standards. And there is also a story that Fernand Petiot invented the drink, without horseradish, at the Saint Regis Bar in New York City in 1934, but it was first called ‘The Red Snapper’. Fernand Petiot seems to have said that George Jessel invented the basic vodka and tomato juice drink, but that he was the one that added the spices.
In a quote from The New Yorker magazine in July 1964: “I initiated the Bloody Mary of today,” he told us. ‘Jessel said he created it, but it was really nothing but vodka and tomato juice when I took it over. I cover the bottom of the shaker with four large dashes of salt, two dashes of black pepper, two dashes of cayenne pepper, and a layer of Worcestershire sauce; I then add a dash of lemon juice and some cracked ice, put in two ounces of vodka and two ounces of thick tomato juice, shake, strain, and pour. We serve a hundred to a hundred and fifty Bloody Marys a day here in the King Cole Room and in the other restaurants and the banquet rooms.’” So the first Bloody Marys seem to have included equal parts vodka and tomato juice plus salt, pepper, cayenne, Worcestershire Sauce, and lemon juice.
The name Bloody Mary seems to be most associated with the English Queen Mary the First (often called Mary Queen of Scots) because, in the Marian Persecutions, she had almost 300 religious dissenters burned at the stake, earning her the nickname of "Bloody Mary".
If you are a Bloody Mary aficionado such as myself, you have tried may different types in many different places. My love affair with Bloody Mary began at the old Oxford Hotel Bar in Denver in the middle 1970s. After the bar had closed and the audience gone home, the staff and performers often had Bloody Mart ‘contests’ where each person would make one round in their favorite way and everyone rated their own favorites. By the seventh or eighth round, we’d have voted for anything. The Bloody Mary may have been invented to cure hangovers, but it is no lightweight in creating hangovers.
The least favorite Bloody Mary I can remember was in a place where you’d expect it to be great, like their food, La Plage on the Beach in North Goa, India. It’s an example of somebody being way too creative. It actually had a bunch of leaves in it. I love their food, but the Bloody Mary, Ich. The famed Salish Lodge above the Snoqualmie Falls in Washington State has a very respectable and slightly variable Bloody Mary called an Infused Mary using a secret recipe of herbs and spices that are cured for days in a large jar hidden behind the bar. But ninety-five percent of the time I’m served a respectable Bloody Mary.
There are so many forms and variations of ‘designer’ Bloody Mary’s that most have to change their names. A version that is very popular with non-drinkers is called the Virgin Mary because it is a Bloody Mary with no alcohol. To name just a few, there is the Bloody Maria with Tequila, the Bloody Geisha with Sake, the Bloody Pirate with Rum, the Bloody Maureen with Guinness, the Bloody Molly with Irish Whiskey, the Bloody Scotsman with Scotch, the Bloody Eight or Eight Ball with spicy V8, and the Ruddy Mary with Gin.
The basic Bloody Mary breakfast-time, hangover curing drink is a surefire winner. If it’s made right, it’s bound to please, and there is a lot of room for experimentation. That makes it one of the great drink recipes of all time. But if you are going to experiment a lot, better have a designated driver.
By: J. R. Ransom Article Directory: Articledashboard J. R. Ransom is president of Taos Music & Art, Inc. (TMA). TMA’s Taos MultiMedia Studio produces taosdining.com - "Where Taos Comes to Eat" an online dining and food magazine.
