Pitcher-Perfect Fall Cocktails #weekendcooking @MargReads

It seems ages ago now, but in mid-September, my husband and I got away for a week with a group of friends at a lake house, after making a pact that for the two weeks leading up to the vacation everyone would follow the strictest social distancing protocols we could, to reduce the risk of spreading COVID-19. It wasn’t far from where we live but it was a temporary respite from the stress of work and politics and the pandemic.

Although the getaway was planned to replace other, bigger trips that had to be canceled, we now see we were lucky to be able to do even this one week of vacation, squeezed into the time between the first and the second wave of the pandemic.

Since the plan was to stay at the house for the entire week – no restaurant dining or sightseeing jaunts – we each brought a week’s worth of food and drink. (Which, when added together, turned out to be closer to a month’s worth…)

After deciding our menu plan for the one night we would be cooking dinner for everyone, my thoughts turned to cocktails for a crowd, since we didn’t have to worry about anyone driving anywhere!

I borrowed five books from the library in addition to perusing my own collection of cocktail recipes. All of these had recipes for cocktails for a crowd.

The recipes in Boozy Brunch: The Quintessential Guide to Daytime Drinking by Peter Joseph include several batch cocktail recipes, but, except for a grouping of “Three Champagne Cocktails,” they’re not pulled out into a separate section.

Boozy Brunch is a fun little hardcover of recipes for cocktails, entrees, and nibbles suitable for brunch. Classic cocktails like Ernest Hemingway’s Death in the Afternoon share pages with more recent inventions like The Flirtini (from Sex in the City, says the recipe note). The recipes don’t name specific brands very often (apart from common ones like Guinness or Cointreau) and call mainly for ingredients that are either easy to find or that you’ll already have on hand.

Batch Cocktails: Make-Ahead Pitcher Drinks for Every Occasion by Maggie Hoffman came out in 2019 and was the one I marked the most recipes in. There are lots of helpful tips for throwers of parties, and a list of “Drinks That Keep” for aged cocktails. (Did you know you could keep a stash of prepared cocktails in your fridge for a long time, like having canned beef stew in your pantry? Why isn’t that in the Prepper’s Handbook?)

Although I marked the most recipes in this book, I didn’t actually make any of them. Each required at least one hard-to-find ingredient or particular type of an ingredient that I didn’t have on hand and didn’t suggest possible substitutions. I ended up seeking out more basic recipes, but I would definitely recommend Batch Cocktails for planning parties not during a pandemic.

If you were only going to buy one of these books and were specifically looking for batch cocktail recipes, Batch Cocktails is the one I would recommend.Less knowledgeable mixologists such as myself might need to look things up (e.g. can Angostura bitters be subbed for Peynaud’s bitters? Which vermouths are sweet, which dry?) and someone without a good liquor store close by might be frustrated by the specificity of the listed ingredients, but this would be a great book for the average person wanting to serve cocktails to a group without individually mixing each one to order.

Zen and Tonic: Savory and Fresh Cocktails for the Enlightened Drinker by Jules Aron is dedicated “To all the green innovators, craft visionaries, and artisan trailblazers raising the bar on organic, locally sourced, quality products. Here’s to infusing healthy, nutritious ingredients back into our lives one delicious drink at a time.”

Zen and Tonic has mostly recipes for individual cocktails using healthful, natural ingredients including superfoods and lots of fresh vegetables and herbs. I bookmarked a few pitcher drinks – Lavender Lemonade, Honeydew Punch, and Bourbon Peach Sweet Tea – that sounded delicious but that I didn’t end up making.

Find out more about “NYC based mixologist, beverage consultant, and natural lifestyle expert” Jules Aron and check out some of his recipes on his Web site, The Healthy Bartender.

The Craft of the Cocktail : Everything You Need to Know to Be a Master Bartender by Dale Degroff is a classic book from 2002. (An updated edition, The New Craft of the Cocktail just came out in September, which I haven’t seen to compare.) It’s a detailed, anecdote-filled book that could serve as a reference book for a serious cocktail enthusiast to dip into – any recipe you might be looking for, any question you have about ingredients, any advice on ice, garnishes, glassware, etc., you will probably find the answer here – or as a book you could pretty much read straight through as a narrative, because the author, like any good bartender, is a good storyteller.

If you were only going to buy one book out of all of these in order to learn a lot about serious cocktail-making all at once, it would be this one (or probably the new edition, I guess!)

The Craft of the Cocktail has a “Punches and Pitcher Drinks” section divided by season. This recipe for Harvest Moon Punch sounds easy to try NEXT Thanksgiving, when maybe we can gather with a crowd again.

Harvest Moon Punch – from The Craft of the Cocktail, 2002 ed.

1 gallon fresh apple cider
6 star anise
6 cinnamon sticks, plus more for garnish
6 cloves
1 orange peel (remove zest of one navel orange, retaining very little pith)
32 ounces bourbon

Combine the apple cider, anise, cinnamon sticks, cloves, and an orange peel in a stainless steel pot and let simmer for 30 or 40 minutes. Do not boil. Strain and add bourbon.

If you’re looking for a gift book for someone who is just getting into cocktail-making, How to Cocktail: Recipes and Techniques for Building the Best Drinks by America’s Test Kitchen would be a good choice. It starts out with a list called “Top Tips for Transcendent Cocktails”.

How to Cocktail is a well-made hardcover – not too big and not too small – with aspirational color photographs of every cocktail. Each recipe has America’s Test Kitchen’s usual detailed explanation of why the recipe is the way it is. It includes a section of “Big Batch Cocktails” containing 13 recipes ranging from Best Fresh Margaritas to Mulled Wine.

I didn’t end up using any of the batch recipes, although they all looked good to me, especially the Brandied Mulled Cider. I liked How to Cocktail but I don’t think I could justify adding it to my cocktail book collection because I think I can find very similar recipes in books I already have.

However, for anyone on the lookout for a gift book that will cover all the basic drinks; provide you with background on ingredients and recipes; and give you all the technique a beginner or non-professional mixologist will need, How to Cocktail would be my recommendation!

In the end, I used recipes I found online, making my own variations on them!

Smoky Harvest Apple Cider Margarita Pitcher from Half Baked Harvest

Mulled Apple Cider Sangria from A Night Owl Blog

Scorpion Bowl Recipe from Dishes Delish

Happy Weekend Cooking!

Weekend Cooking  hosted by Marg @ The Intrepid Reader.