Hey fudgie... I remember you liked that stuff... I thought it was foul...
I posted this
after the Whiskey Run:
William Percy described how to make a real Southern Mint Julep in "Lanterns on the Levee"...
Father and General Catchins and Captain McNeilly and Captain Wat Stone and Mr. Everman would
forgather every so often on our front gallery. These meeting must habitually have taken place in
summer, because I remember Mother would be in white, looking very pretty, and would immediately
set about making a mint julep for the gentlemen - no hors d'oeuvres, no sandwiches, no cocktails,
just a mint julep. After the first long swallow - really a slow and noiseless suck, because the thick
crushed ice comes against your teeth and the ice must be kept out and the liquor let in - Cap Mac
would say: "Very fine, Camille, you make the best julep in the world." She probably did. Certainly
her juleps had nothing in common with those hybrid concoctions one buys in bars the world over
under that name. It would have been sacrilege to add lemon, or a slice of orange or of pineapple,
or one of these wretched maraschino cherries.
First you needed excellent bourbon whisky; rye or Scotch would not do at all. Then you put half an
inch of sugar in the bottom of the glass and merely dampened it with water. Next, very quickly - and
here is the trick in the procedure - you crushed your ice, actually powdered it, preferably in a towel
with a wooden mallet, so quickly that it remained dry, and slipping two sprigs of fresh mint against
the inside of the glass, you crammed the ice in right to the brim, packing it with your hand. Last you
filled the glass, which apparently had no room left for anything else, with bourbon, the older the
better, and grated a bit of nutmeg on the top.
The glass immediately frosted and you settled back in your chair for a half an hour of sedate
cumulative bliss. Although you stirred the sugar at the bottom, it never all melted, therefore at
the end of the half hour there was left a delicious mess of ice and mint and whisky which a small
boy was allowed to consume with calm rapture. Probably the anticipation of this phase of a julep
was what held me on the outskirts of these meetings rather than the excitement of the discussion,
which often I did not understand.
-Mike
