But for cocktails, the freezer is a far more efficient ally. A bottle of water frozen for four hours is an icicle; a bottled cocktail treated the same is a perfect drink. Because the freezing point for ethanol is so much lower (-173 Fahrenheit) than for water (which freezes at 32 F; freezers are meant to be set at 0 F), and because sugar (present in most cocktails in some form) also inhibits freezing, I regularly use my freezer to pre-prep drinks so they’re ready to go, for me or for any friends who happen to drop by.
Good freezer drinks can go in two directions: higher-proof cocktails, which stay liquid in the freezer, taking on a thicker syrupy quality (martinis, Manhattans, Negronis, etc.), and lower-proof, higher-water-content drinks that are designed to partially freeze and roll into your glass in slushy form (daiquiris and other drinks in which juices play a starring role, avoiding the mess of a blender). I’ve kept bottles of both Dante’s Negroni Azzuro and Shannon Mustipher’s lovely lime-and-banana Parasol in the freezer, and neither were the worse for wear when they came out; the latter was frozen but needed only a few minutes at room temperature to become pourable.
As the weather slides toward its stickiest state, when allowing a zero-degree drink to sweat down your arm before sipping is a pleasure of the season, I’ve been happy to find drink ideas in J.M. Hirsch’s new book, “Freezer Door Cocktails: 75 Cocktails That Are Ready When You Are,” which offers a range of original and rejiggered classics, formulated to hold in the cold but never freeze. Hirsch, editorial director of the culinary multimedia organization Milk Street, talks readers through such processes as fat-washing and rapid blender infusion that provide flavor boosts without more liquid, ensuring that the drinks are ready to pour straight out of the freezer.
Some snoots will pooh-pooh the freezer drink, arguing that cold damages the flavors. These are likely the same people who will orate in elaborate detail how shaking a martini “bruises the gin,” and your reaction should be the same: back away slowly, lowering your eyes to convey submission, until you are far enough away to sprint home and pour yourself a nice cold cocktail out of the freezer.
“The first step is to not compare a freezer-door cocktail to what you get at one of the world’s best bars,” says Hirsch. “That is not the goal.” Yes, there could be some minimal impact on flavor, he says, but “what a lot of people are responding to is the cold. Scientifically, cold dulls flavor – so even ice cream tastes better if you let it warm up a little.”
I was especially pleased to see a recipe for a batched Vieux Carré, a classic New Orleans cocktail more people should be sipping regularly. Dating to at least 1938, it first appeared in “New Orleans Drinks and How to Mix ’Em,” attributed to bartender Walter Bergeron of the Hotel Monteleone. The name Vieux Carré, “Old Square,” references the French Quarter, but I’ve long warned first-timers that it’s also local patois for “swift kick in the face.”
It’s an ideal candidate for freezer-batching, not only because of the beautiful texture it takes on, but because, at six ingredients, it’s a little fussy to mix up one by one. Making a vat of it that will keep for months is ideal. If my particular vat tends to keep more like a few weeks, that’s due to thirsty drop-ins, not freezer-burn.
I went the slushy route for my own offering here, inspired by one of the season’s other great pleasures: fresh watermelon. I can’t get enough of it this time of year, and combining it with lemon and a citrusy gin just seemed like something I’d want to drink all summer. The lemon and watermelon juices both contain plenty of water, allowing the drink to freeze up while maintaining its intensity of bright, fresh flavor.
Here are some tips for whipping up your own summer cold ones, to have ready for company or just to prepare yourself for whatever that dish is at the back of the freezer. Maybe it’ll be lasagna? Whatever it is, you’ll feel better by the time you figure it out.
Use the right amount of alcohol
The science of freezing makes for a delicate balance between a drink that’s icy cold and one that’s actually frozen. If you want a liquid drink right out of the freezer, Hirsch says, it shouldn’t contain any more than 20 percent no- or low-alcohol ingredients. That means you can replace about 150 milliliters of a 750-milliliter bottle with syrups, juice, or lower-alcohol ingredients (such as vermouth) and it will stay liquid at standard freezer temps. Much more and you’re going slushy.
The recipes in “Freezer Door Cocktails” provide the exact amount to remove from a standard 750-ml bottle of base spirit to add the other ingredients back into the same bottle. Hirsch also recommends the bottles from Crew Supply Co. — not only can they be filled from the bottom, they hold 850 ml. It’s an ideal size for drinks with more water or juice, since those will expand in freezing.
For drinks that’ll stay liquid, a standard bottle is fine, but if you’re making something slushy, you’ll be happier using a Mason-style jar with a wider rim — it’ll make the pouring easier and allow you to stir the slush if need be.
If you’re making a drink that incorporates fizz (such as sparkling wine, club soda or tonic), add that to the glass just before serving, not as part of the frozen batch. Otherwise you could wake up in the middle of the night to a freezer explosion, and whatever that dish is back there, being coated with gooey remnants of bubbly is not likely to improve it.
Wait a minute before drinking
Remember Hirsch’s tip: Straight out of the freezer, a drink’s chill may deaden your taste buds. Take it out, pour it, get a snack, let the dog out, and come back to find it ready to go.
