Smirnoff Dill Mary (1971)

FUN FACT! According to Mint Juleps with Teddy Roosevelt: The Complete History of Presidential Drinking, by Mark Will-Weber, one of JFK’s preferred alcoholic beverage is the Bloody Mary.

So this post has inadvertently become a Presidents Day post, one day late.

Furthermore, I had no idea about the Bloody Mary connection when I wrote about 43. New England Boiled Dinner to accompany that Kennedys miniseries and made a Kennedy-inspired cocktail!

Jackie-O’s Clamato Cocktail!

Combine the following and serve on ice with lemon.

• 1 jigger vodka
• 8 oz. Clamato juice
• 1 tsp grated horseradish
• 1/2 tsp Worcestershire
• 3/4 tsp hot sauce
• 1/2 tsp Old Bay
• 1/2 tsp fresh lemon juice
• black pepper to taste

It was yummy. Do not be scared by Clamato.

Now, onto what I did intend to write about today–the Dill Mary from the 1972 Smirnoff Brunch Book:

I used fresh dill in this

cocktail because Mr. Sauce brought a bunch home from the store. He purchased it for a big pot of homemade chicken noodle soup.

Per Smirnoff’s directions, I let the vodka, juice, and dill stand for 10 minutes before adding a SINGLE DROP of Tabasco and salt.

I then strained. As you can see, the fine mesh strainer strained out A LOT. I was surprised at how much:

So the end result was very clear. And thin.

This was weak sauce. And didn’t taste much like dill.

So I tried to fix it.

I put the strained pulp back into the glass and added some lemon.

Adding the strained dill and tomato back into the glass was the right move. And the lemon didn’t mask the dill, it complemented it nicely.

This experiment was a good one. I’d definitely consider including fresh dill to a future Bloody Mary bar!

1/5 on the Tomato Scale (original recipe)