Butter is Better

The lady (we'll call her "Big Bird" to keep with the theme here) and I spent the day in NYC yesterday. It was just a quick getaway to get out of dodge and get into dodge-ing pedestrians and potholes. First stop was one of my fave pizza spots, Posto, on 18th and 2nd. We try hard at home to make perfect thin pizza crust, and we're getting pretty good at it. I wanted to show Big Bird just how thin it could get. I happen to love Posto, but many I've turned on to it hate it, saying "it's like eating pizza on a cracker" because its so thin and crispy. The thinner and crispier the better, I say. Plus, their ingredients are so fresh. Try the shroomtown pie; wild mushroom mix drizzled with white truffle oil.

Now onto why I really wanted to write about....

After lunch we walked around SOHO for a few hours, just enough time to crave a late afternoon cocktail. I knew that Tailor was close by so we walked over there. I don't think Big Bird has ever been to any of these uptight cocktail bars. You know, the ones who try so hard to re-enact the snobbishness of the aristocratic culture in the 20's, 30's, and 40's, as well as re-enact, and a lot of the time, reinvent the classic cocktails of that era. I love it. So we head into Tailor and go downstairs to the cocktail bar area. The personality-less, vintage-uniformed mixologist who looks like he could have doubled as a Nazi butler comes over and gives us a menu. First on the menu, and as far as I am concerned, only on the menu, was a drink called "The Crumble," tipping the scales at a whopping $14. Served in a lowball with one giant rock (I love the giant rock, it's a way of keeping your drink cold without watering it down), "The Crumble" simply consists of browned butter rum, clove, Poire, (Poire is a sparkling pear cider from France) and whole shitload of deliciousness. It smelled like a spiked Werther's Original candy on top of creme brulee without the sweetness. it was straight up caramel, burnt sugar, toffee, butter, and a hint of that nose hair singeing alcohol. I could have drank enough of them to burn a serious hole in my wallet and stomach lining. Oh by the way, Big bird had a Kumquat caipirinha. Good, but it didn't stand a chance next to "The Crumble."

Since Big Bird and I are into drinking AND churning butter (Laugh it up Ernie), I asked how it was made. Simple. A quarter pound of butter per liter of rum. Brown (not burn!) the butter in a pan, add it to your liter of rum (they use a rum called "Fleur de Canne" from St. James distillery on the French-Caribbean island of Martinique. Its an average rum according to them, no need to get anything fancy). Chill it down in the fridge overnight. The next day the butterfat will have hardened again and separated to the top of the container, remove it. After you've removed the hardened butter fat, strain the rum into another container and voila! You've got your browned butter rum. Grab a bit of clove, and a small part sparkling pear cider if you have it, or substitute with sparkling apple, and you've got yourself your very own Crumble. Im going to try my hand at this today so stay tuned!

Bert