Pussyfoot
Four juices, a dash of red and a wobble of egg white - a 1920s temperance drink.
Ingredients
- 60 ml Jigger One large side (50 ml) of a standard jigger, plus two teaspoons. Orange juice
- 15 ml Spoons A tablespoon. Lemon juice
- 10 ml Spoons Two teaspoons. Lime juice
- 10 ml Spoons Two teaspoons. Grenadine
- 1 egg white Egg white - For the foam - leave it out and the drink is still good, just flatter (optional)
- 1 twist Orange twist (optional)
Measured in Millilitres (UK). Sign in to read these in American measures. Print a kitchen card at this size.
What the jigger, the spoons and the jug hold, in millilitres and in fluid ounces, is on the measures reference.
Quick version
- Shake everything hard with ice, then again without it, and strain into a flute.
Method
- Put all the juices, the grenadine and the egg white into a shaker without ice and shake for 15 seconds to aerate it.
- Add ice and shake hard for another 15 seconds, until the outside of the shaker frosts.
- Fine strain into a flute or over ice in a highball, and let the foam settle.
- Twist a piece of orange peel over the top and drop it in.
Serve it
Pussyfoot
Temperance bars of the 1920s needed drinks that looked like the real thing, and American bartenders responded with a shelf of them that have names nobody can say with a straight face today. This is the best of the bunch - a dry shake gives it a genuine head of foam, which is what made it convincing in 1922 and what makes it worth making now.
Getting it right
The egg white wants a dry shake first, without ice, or the foam will be thin and sad; and a fine strain afterwards keeps the ice shards and the stray albumen out of the glass. Grenadine goes in for colour as much as flavour - the drink should be a deep sunset orange, not a brown one, so add it last and stop when the colour is right.
Tasting notes
Bright citrus with a soft pomegranate middle, and a texture that is much more luxurious than the ingredient list suggests. It tastes like something invented by a person who was determined not to be left out.