video:
You're Doing It All Wrong
How to Muddle for a Cocktail with Michael Cecconi
By Meredith Arthur and Eric Slatkin
Once upon a time, all you needed for cocktail-making was liquor, ice, and a glass. Now, a cocktail isn’t complete without freshly muddled fruit and herbs. Michael Cecconi, mixologist at New York’s Back Forty who also works at the Savoy and teaches at the Institute of Culinary Education, has paid his muddling dues and wants to share his hard-earned knowledge. He does not think that drinks should have broken pieces of glass in them, for one. He recommends getting the right type of muddler and an unbreakable glass, then using your arm’s weight to help your motion.
Great video, really useful!
CH Editors, you're really hanging yourselves out there for criticism with a title like "You're Doing It All Wrong"... there's plenty awry in this video.
1. Never use a toothed muddler with delicate herbs such as mint. It's directly at odds with a primary goal espoused in the video: avoiding bitter chlorophyll flavors to the drink that are imparted by eviscerating the leaves.
2. You're still running the risk of chipping/cracking glass while using a metal handle. There are food-grade plastic and unvarnished, tight-grained wooden options on the market.
3. If you must muddle mint and lime simultaneously, place the mint underneath the lime wedges to "protect" the leaves. You want to gently bruise the mint to extract oil from the leaf, not tear it into bits..
4. And if you're going to go through all those precautions, don't spoil all your work with a shake as lackadaisical as the example offered at the end of the video. Lame.
abe, i think you're being a bit harsh, but your suggestion of putting the mint under the lime sounds good.
Relax Abe, I mean we all know that as the sausage king of Chicago and therefore you are bit particular but come on these are not master's classes, these are just short fun videos that are supposed to be helpful for those of us who are relative novices and getting it wrong. If you want to be among experts then take Michael’s Mixology Classes at ICE where it is perfectly fine to debate the finer points of how to release a herb’s true essence.
I guess he could have suggested that the mint be muddled using the tender buttocks of Buddhist monks but at what point are you taking it a bit far for the masses, although now that I think about it, it would give new meaning to the phrase "bottoms up!" though.
Cheers and Bottoms Up!
Loved the video and the bartender and appreciate the series they are a lot of fun.
Was that a Mojito without sugar or simple syrup?
VERY VERY VERY IMPORTANT GUYS! I used to bartend on the Sunset Strip for 8 years and one bartender did that method of glass in glass and the one shattered in his hand and cut his vein from the thumb to the middle of his hand. Like 30 stitches. IT WAS HORRIBLE! Never do that ever. If it is plastic that is fine. Otherwise forget it.
Actually I thought I was posting this in the "what to do if you don't have a strainer..." But either way be careful.