A turkey tail full of cocktails for Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is celebrated in many ways in Salt Lake City and across the USA, but one of the most common is at a family gathering featuring a turkey dinner.  In school we all learned that Thanksgiving Day commemorates the day of giving thanks that the Pilgrim Fathers celebrated (and President Lincoln later established as a holiday) after their first harvest at the Plymouth Colony on Cape Cod.  Cocktails at Thanksgiving used to be for before dinner and after dinner affair, with wine (or beer or non-alcoholic beverages) served during the meal.  In recent years, thanks to the craft cocktail revival, there has been a shift toward serving cocktails with Thanksgiving dinner.

Pairing cocktails with Thanksgiving dinner presents the same challenges as pairing wines.  Sweet or dry?  Subtle or flavorful?  (Flavorful might be a better choice for the variety of flavors likely to be found in Thanksgiving dinner.)  Personal tastes (yours and tour guests’).  Here’s a selection of cocktails that should please you this Thanksgiving.  Some are sweet, some are dry, but there should be something to please almost everyone.

Plymouth® is a brand name for a distinct type of Gin that legend says was used in the first Martini cocktail, and it’s the Gin that Dale DeGroff used when he made me a Martini at Portland Cocktail Week.  Made at the Blackfriars Distillery in Plymouth (it used to be a monastery) it was probably the last Gin the Pilgrim Fathers drank before (and perhaps while) sailing to Massachusetts.  It makes a great Pink Gin.  The poor Pilgrims probably didn’t have any cocktail bitters and had to drink their Gin neat, but we can do better.  

If your taste leans more toward Whisky, especially Scotch Whisky, you might want to try a Bobby Burns.  While Scotch, Italian Vermouth, and Benedictine were most likely in short supply among the Pilgrims, that doesn’t mean you have to do without, and it is almost St. Andrew’s Day.

While the Pilgrims were far from New York (and even further in time considering their seventeenth century travel technology) a Manhattan just tastes good this time of year.  So if nothing has appealed to you so far, give this classic a try; it’s sure to please. 

The Cape Codder, named after the peninsula where the Plymouth Colony was located, is a simple drink with only two ingredients: Orange Vodka and Cranberry Juice.  It’s easy to make and will compliment the traditional turkey dinner.  Think of it as a form of liquid cranberry sauce.

Rum is the quintessential liquor of the new world, so what better way to beat the winter weather than with a Hot Rum Toddy?  The poor Pilgrims probably didn’t have any Caribbean Rum at the first Thanksgiving, but why should you suffer?  This might be a selection best served after dinner.

One pleasant memory is how at Grandma’s house every Thanksgiving back in the fifties the kids could be found either running around “like wild Indians” (commemorating Thanksgiving?) or drinking glass after glass of non-alcoholic eggnog.  Meanwhile Grandpa would be serving up Old Fashioned’s for Dad, Mom, and the aunts and uncles.  Here’s hoping that this cocktail reminds you of the Thanksgivings d’antan as it does me.  Happy Thanksgiving!

Wines to get your bird’s attention at Thanksgiving dinner

While turkey is the center of the “traditional” Thanksgiving dinner, it is by no means a requirement, and many families have different traditions.  Salt Lake City is home to many different ethnicities that each enjoy their own traditions, so many different meals will be served this coming Thursday.  If there is one Thanksgiving tradition that is even more widespread than turkey, it is to have a large variety of a lot of different tasting foods.  This, in combination with the fact that not everyone will enjoy the same wines with the same foods, makes finding the perfect wine pairing difficult.  If you’re hosting a large family dinner and have done so in the past, ask yourself what worked (or didn’t) before.  If you hit upon a wine that everyone raved about last year, then your best bet is to stick with the same selection or something very similar.  If you’re not that lucky, then you have a little work to do.  If you know your guests’ wine preferences, that should be an important input to your decision, so keep it in mind. 

Although tradition dictates that white wine be served with white meat, the complexity of the typical Thanksgiving dinner eases that restriction.  Three reds that work well for Thanksgiving are Pinot Noir, Zinfandel, and Beaujolais.  If you decide to go red, try a Pinot Noir with medium body that won’t overpower white meat and with medium acidity to cut through some of the fatty foods likely to be part of the dinner.  Zinfandels tend to be fuller bodied, but work well if you have a lot of spicy foods, while Beaujolais tend to be lighter wines that won’t overpower the flavors of the food.

If you decide to go white, you may discover that slightly sweeter whites go well with a Thanksgiving dinner.  A friend’s son looked askance at the bottles of Vouvray that I had brought for their Thanksgiving dinner until he tasted it with the meal, then he was a convert.  One white wine that shouldn’t be ignored is Sparking Wine.  Champagnes are so versatile that they can even go with chocolate.  If you want to go a little sweet, get Extra Dry, and if you want to go dry, get the Brut.  This month there are not many Sparklers on sale (they’re waiting for the big December blow-out), but a pair of Korbels and Domain Chandon Blanc de Noirs are marked down.

There are several other whites that will work well with a turkey dinner.  Riesling has the acidity to stand up to most of the foods it will encounter, and you can find it ranging anywhere from dry to sweet, so decide what degree of sweetness you want and check the label.  Gewürztraminer is fruity and spicy enough go well with turkey and dressing, and also comes in sweet or dry.   Pinot Grigio is another favorite that can deliver good flavor over  fatty holiday gravy.  Sauvignon Blanc and (reliable) Chardonnay are two other possibilities that will serve you well.

Lastly, if you will serve wine with dessert, keep in mind that a dessert wine should be sweeter than the dessert, so if you chose a dry, white (or red) wine for dinner you should definitely trade it out for something sweeter with dessert.

Five delicious cocktail recipes to try this Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving Day commemorates the day of giving thanks that the Pilgrim Fathers established after their first harvest at the Plymouth Colony on old Cape Cod. It’s a day when we gather with our families and give thanks for all the good things we have while watching football, preparing and eating a feast, and perhaps having a cocktail or two. Here’s a selection of cocktails that should please you this Thanksgiving. One is related to the Pilgrims geographically and another by direct association while a third will just warm you up whenever you think of the Plymouth Colony shivering in their cabins.

The Cape Codder, named after the peninsula where the Plymouth Colony was located, is a simple drink with only two ingredients: Orange Vodka and Cranberry Juice. Think of it as a form of liquid cranberry sauce.

Plymouth® is a brand name, but also a distinct type of gin, and probably the last gin the Pilgrim Fathers drank before (and perhaps while) sailing to America. It makes a great Pink Gin. The poor Pilgrims probably didn’t have any cocktail bitters and had to drink their gin neat, but we can do better.

Rum is the quintessential liquor of the new world, so what better way to beat the winter weather than with a Hot Rum Toddy? The poor Pilgrims probably didn’t have any rum at the first Thanksgiving, but why should you suffer?

While the Pilgrims were far from New York (and even further in time considering their seventeenth century travel technology) a Manhattan just tastes good this time of year. So if nothing has appealed to you so far, give it a try. It’s a cocktail even your mother can love.

At Grandma’s house every Thanksgiving the kids could be found either running around “like wild Indians” (commemorating Thanksgiving?) or drinking glass after glass of non-alcoholic egg nog. Meanwhile Grandpa would be serving up Old Fashioned’s for Dad, Mom, and the aunts and uncles. Here’s hoping that this cocktail reminds you of the Thanksgivings d’antan as it does me. Happy Thanksgiving!

View a slide show of these great cocktails.

Remember the Pilgrim Fathers with a Cape Codder

When the Pilgrim Fathers landed from the Mayflower on Cape Cod in 1620, the thought of having a cocktail named after the site of the Plymouth Colony almost certainly never entered their minds. Never mind that they didn’t even know what a cocktail was in those quasi-prehistoric days. You should not, however, let a little recalcitrance on the part of a gun-totin’ man in a funny hat stop you from enjoying a different type of cranberry sauce before Thanksgiving dinner this year. The Cape Codder is a simple drink with only two ingredients: Orange Vodka and Cranberry Juice. It’s almost as simple as the Pilgrims’ favorite drink (Plymouth Gin, neat), but with one fewer ingredient. So this Thanksgiving, sit down in your easy-chair and kick back with a Cape Codder while you’re waiting for the game to start. Before the game starts, however, be sure to take a few moments to give thanks that you weren’t born in the seventeenth century.

Cape Codder

1 1/2 oz Absolut® Mandrin (or other orange Vodka )

3 oz Cranberry juice

Pour Vodka and Cranberry Juice into a mixing glass half full of ice. Stir well until ice cold and strain into a highball glass full of ice cubes. (Okay, if you’re lazy just build it in the highball glass.) Garnish with a lime wedge. If you prefer your drinks “up”, strain instead into a chilled cocktail glass and garnish with a lime wheel.