from Passerine
TEXT BY CARRIE HAVRANEK | PHOTO BY SUSAN L. ANGSTADT
This Sweet Corn Sour is our fall cocktail. This time, we turned to Jen Splain, beverage director at Passerine in Lancaster, one of our favorite restaurants for its focus on local, seasonal, and inventive fare. That ethos extends to their bar, too. We asked for a creation that exemplifies the transitional last gasp of summer bounty. After much discussion, she and her staff came up with this sweet corn–based riff on a whiskey sour, with a flavor profile reminiscent of a chicken corn soup, which contains saffron. Brought to the U.S. during Colonial times, saffron boasts a long history in Pennsylvania Dutch cooking, believe it or not. It’s not just the provenance of paella, for example; you can also make tea out of saffron. Here, she calls it, “equal parts magical and delicious. It’s a touch earthy, a bit floral—somewhere at the intersection of honey and bitter.”
To make this, you’ll need to special order the Apologue Saffron Liqueur and Nixta Licor de Elote, as it’s not something commonly stocked in our state liquor stores. You’ll also need to the whiskey with saffron and corn before completing the next step: the fat wash. (We did this in the Watermelon Feta Negroni in our summer issue.) That process simply involves adding melted butter to whiskey before steeping and straining it. We know this sounds like a bit of work, but we’re sure there are some of you out there who will try your hand at it. Or you can just go to Passerine; it’s on their fall cocktail menu.)
“This drink is decadent, playful, and refreshing while paying homage to ingredients that represent the place I call home,” she says.
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Sweet Corn Sour
Ingredients
For the butter-washed whiskey
- 1 (750 milliliter) bottle Stoll & Wolfe bourbon whiskey
- 8 ounces unsalted sweet cream butter
- 1 tablespoon ground cardamom
For the sweet corn saffron cordial
- 1 (14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
- 1 fresh ear of corn about 240 grams stripped from the cob; cut cob into small pieces
- 1 ¼ cups (250 grams) cane sugar
- 1 pinch (1 gram) saffron
For the cocktail
- 2½ ounces cardamom-butter-washed Stoll & Wolfe bourbon
- 1 ounce sweet corn saffron cordial
- 1 ounce lemon juice
- ½ ounce Nixta Licor de Elote
- ¼ ounce Apologue Saffron Liqueur
- 2 dashes Scrappy’s Cardamom Bitters
Instructions
For the butter-washed whiskey
- In a small saucepan over very low heat, melt butter with the cardamom; do not simmer. Pour the butter and then the whiskey into a lidded nonreactive container. Let rest at room temperature for a few hours, stirring often. Freeze overnight. The next day, strain out the butter through a fine-mesh strainer and cheesecloth. Discard the solids. Store 5–7 days in the refrigerator in a covered airtight container.
For the sweet corn saffron cordial
- Bring all ingredients together over low heat in a double boiler, stirring frequently until the sugar dissolves. Blend using an immersion or high-speed blender; strain. Refrigerate in an airtight container for about a week.
To make the cocktail
- Shake all ingredients and double strain over fresh ice in a double rocks glass. Garnish with fresh popped corn tossed in cardamom butter.
