Virgin Mary
The Bloody Mary's savoury half - tomato, spice and a stick of celery.
Photo: Virgin mary bardak - the mocktail house-min by Themocktailhouse · CC BY-SA 4.0 · All credits
Ingredients
Measures below are multiplied for 12 drinks. Unmeasurable amounts such as “a splash” are left as written.
- 1800 ml Measuring jug A measuring jug: pour to the 1800 ml line. Tomato juice - A good one, and salted - this is the whole drink
- 180 ml Measuring jug A measuring jug: pour to the 180 ml line. Lemon juice
- 36 dashes Bottle 36 quick shake of the bottle - each a few drops, about a millilitre. Worcestershire sauce
- 24 dashes Bottle 24 quick shake of the bottle - each a few drops, about a millilitre. Tabasco
- 12 pinches Celery salt
- 12 pinches Black pepper - Freshly ground, and not a small pinch
- 12 sticks Celery stick (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
- Season the tomato juice in the glass, roll it between two glasses and serve it cold.
Method
Batch (12 drinks)Batch (12 drinks) - about 1.98 l 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.
- Chill the tomato juice properly before you start - this is a cold drink, not a soup.
- Season it in the glass with the lemon, Worcestershire, Tabasco, celery salt and pepper.
- Roll the drink between two glasses rather than stirring it, so it mixes without frothing.
- Add a celery stick, and taste it again before you hand it over - the seasoning is the recipe.
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.
Virgin Mary
Take the vodka out of a Bloody Mary and you are left with something close to a very good gazpacho you can drink standing up, which is a better fate than most spirits get when they are removed. The drink was always about tomato and spice; the vodka was there to make it a breakfast, and on a Sunday morning not everybody wants that.
Getting it right
The tomato juice is the drink, so buy the best one you can and use it cold. Everything after that is seasoning, and the quantities above are a starting point rather than an instruction - taste it, and keep going until it is savoury and bright and a little bit hot. Roll it between two glasses: stirring agitates the juice and froths it, and a Virgin Mary should be glossy rather than foamy. Celery salt instead of plain salt is worth buying a jar for.
Tasting notes
Deep and savoury, with tomato at the centre, lemon cutting through it and a slow warmth from the Tabasco. The most substantial drink in this book, and the only one that can double as breakfast.