Pussyfoot
Four juices, a dash of red and a wobble of egg white - a 1920s temperance drink.
Ingredients
Measures below are multiplied for 6 drinks. Unmeasurable amounts such as “a splash” are left as written.
- 360 ml Measuring jug A measuring jug: pour to the 360 ml line. Orange juice
- 90 ml Jigger One large side (50 ml) and one small side (25 ml) of a standard jigger, plus a tablespoon. Lemon juice
- 60 ml Jigger One large side (50 ml) of a standard jigger, plus two teaspoons. Lime juice
- 60 ml Jigger One large side (50 ml) of a standard jigger, plus two teaspoons. Grenadine
- 6 egg whites Egg white - For the foam - leave it out and the drink is still good, just flatter (optional)
- 6 twists 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
Pitcher (6 drinks)Pitcher (6 drinks) - about 570 ml of measured ingredients, before ice and dilution.
Timings and per-glass steps below are written for one drink and are not scaled. A full jug takes longer to chill, so stir or shake until it is properly cold rather than by the clock, and pour over fresh ice one glass at a time.
- 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
Volumes in this story are multiplied for the size above, along with the ingredients. Years, ratios and the capacities of glasses and jugs are left as written.
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.