October 25, 2013

Roffignac

I love when I casually cross path with a great cocktail. A couple of weeks ago I never knew there were such a creation as the Roffignac cocktail named after and in honor of the first mayor of New Orleans who gave that fine city it's first street lights.

Today I mixed it with a raspberry shrub made from the next to the last harvest of berries from my own garden and it was a revelation.

I haven't mixed much with cognac but I will in the future. I am amazed at how well it holds up against both the sweetness and the vinegar and how it brings out the glory of unprocessed raspberry juice. Not sure my beloved gin could accomplish that.

I made the shrub over three days - that's how long I let equal measures of fresh raspberries and organic sugar sit in a covered bowl on my cool kitchen counter.

After three days the berries had shrunk and looked borderline bad, but the bowl was filled with lovely smelling viscous mix of juice and sugar.

I strained the berries out and threw them away - they probably could have made a nice filling in muffins or a cake - and shook the juice-sugar mixture pretty hard to dissolve the crystals.

Next I gently added white vinegar in small increments until I found the balance between the sweet and the sour.  I didn't measure so I do not know how much I added - but if measurements are important to you this guy has a recipe.

After that mixing the highball was really easy:
  • 6 cl cognac
  • 4 cl raspberry shrub
  • Seltzers
Just pour the cognac and shrub over ice in a highball glass and add seltzers to taste and. Garnish with some Maraschino cherries.

And for me an extra bonus of this cocktail was both it's history part 1 and part 2 and the fact that Chris Hannah of Arnauld's French 75 was instrumental in it's rediscovery.

I count as one of the high points of my visit to New Orleans and TOTC this past summer my visit with a good friend and cocktail expert to that fine establishment - and realize I've never written that visit up.


2 comments:

  1. Hi there Elana,
    Could you describe your final product? Does it smell like vinegar?

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  2. Not at all - the cocktail smells of brandy and fresh raspberries. The shrub on it's own has a whiff of vinegar. I used a regular white vinegar that I always have handy - rice wine vinegar would be good too.

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