Cooking Lesson #1057: Salty Dog

…from the Perspectives’ Happy Hour Bar

How you doin’? This refreshing classic cocktail is a modified Greyhound (gin or vodka with grapefruit juice) differentiated by the drink’s salted rim. But that salt gives this drink its own distinct identity.

The Greyhound dates to the 1930s, when it appeared in Harry Craddock’s “Savoy Cocktail Book” as a simple cocktail combining gin, grapefruit and ice. Since then, the Greyhound has stayed largely the same, minus the greater public’s predilection for subbing vodka for gin over the years—a phenomenon that also impacted other historically gin-based classics like the Gimlet and the Martini. Eventually, the Greyhound received a salted rim and a new moniker to describe its savory cousin.

The Salty Dog was likely created in the 1950s as a way to dial down the grapefruit’s tart and bitter notes. Salt isn’t only for seasoning food… it is a flavor enhancer. It’s also a popular convention for cocktails, and when applied to rims or dashed into drinks like the Salty Dog, Margarita and Paloma, it brings the constituent parts together.

​Choose your ingredients wisely when making a Salty Dog. With only two liquid ingredients, the quality of your preferred spirit and the grapefruit juice is crucial. Use a good vodka, as the base spirit will remain present with each sip. Fresh grapefruit juice yields a better drink full of rich, flavorful citrus, absent the cloying sweetness or artificial notes present in many canned and bottled juices.

Ingredients
Kosher salt for the rim glass prep
1-1/2 ounces vodka (good quality)
3 ounces freshly squeezed pink grapefruit juice
Pink grapefruit slice garnish

Directions

1. Wet the rim of a highball glass and dip it in coarse kosher salt.
2. Fill the glass with ice, then add the vodka and grapefruit juice and stir gently to combine.
3. Garnish with a pink grapefruit slice.

ChefSecret:  As noted above, you can substitute gin for vodka.

Doggie Quip of the Day:  A dog walks into a job center. ‘Wow, a talking dog,’ says the clerk. ‘With your talent I’m sure we can find you a gig in the circus.’ ‘The circus?’ says the dog. ‘What does a circus want with a plumber?’
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