If you couldn't stay awake late enough to see Rachel last night on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, fear not! His crack web staff already have the clips up.
Random pickle back story: I tended bar for several years in the late 1990s. Nothing fancy; in fact, quite the opposite of fancy. Fancy mixology wasn't really trendy then, and my bar wasn't really trendy in that way anyway. If anything was trendy, it was sweet drinks made of flavored liqueurs with obscene or suggestive names (think Sex on the Beach). So the extent of my cocktail creativity was based around making drinks that tasted like other things. "It tastes just like candy!" "It tastes just like a melon ball!" "It takes just like a Girl Scout cookie!"
This is getting long. Meet me after the jump...
I have a cousin who is a fancy, famous chef and one day we met him at a fancy place for dinner. The bartender there was celebrated for making an amazing, must-try watermelon martini, so I ordered one. The flavor was very convincing, as was the color. What mad chemistry could produce such an authentic taste? Midori and some kind of schnapps? Was it some trick using Malibu rum that fools the tongue? No, none of that, I soon learned. It was made with actual watermelon juice.
Of course these days the idea of fresh ingredients, juices and garnishes is almost commonplace, but my realm of experience was more along the lines of yesterday's slimy lemon wedges freshened with a splash of club soda from the gun, so the idea of achieving watermelon with actual watermelon was a revelation.
On my next shift I invented the pickle martini. I served free samples to amazed customers who tried to guess what I could have used to mix such an authentic pickle flavor and even color. "It tastes just like pickle!" Really, it was an Absolut Limon martini and I would sneak down to the service bar and ask a server to run into the kitchen and dunk a ramekin in the pickle bucket for a couple of ounces of juice.
That was all pretty ridiculous (and gross, I guess), but here it is more than ten years later and I'm watching Rachel mix whiskey and pickle juice with Jimmy Fallon.
Other bit of pickle back nerdery: I'm seeing this drink spelled as one word, pickleback, including on these Fallon clips. This could be because it's fun to say that way, or because Nickelback lurks in our collective subconscious, but I'm pretty sure it's two words because a "back" is a thing in bar parlance.
I don't think it's used very often anymore, but ordering a back is like ordering a chaser. You can have your highball ingredients mixed together or you can order just the alcohol and a non-alcoholic chaser back. I've mostly heard it used with water or soda and whiskey. So you order whiskey with a soda back and you get a shot of whiskey, or just whiskey neat in a glass to nurse, and a separate glass of club soda with it.
I remember the first time someone ordered one from me, I had no idea what they were talking about. Whiskey with a Coke back? It seemed like a scam to get a free Coke.
Anyway, I think it's pickle back, because really it's whiskey with pickle back.
(Whether I got the plural right in the headline I'll leave to you.)
Leave a Comment:
Try what I call a Manhattan Pickleback: A shot of olive brine after the shot (I prefer gold tequila).
Haha! Best attack ad :"Rick Santorum. Google him."
I'm not much of a drinker, but we use pickle juice as a Gatorade substitute in the summer.
Rachel - I think you will appreciate this...
The Fox and the Hen House
Once upon a time there was a fox. The fox was placed in charge of the hen house. The fox’s job was to regulate all the activity of the hen house. However, the fox was wily and was opposed to regulation. Therefore, he ate all the hens. However, this did not satisfy the fox. So, the fox invited all his friends to a meeting. When all his friends were gathered he said…
http://www.mixermuse.com/blog/2012/01/06/the-fox-and-the-hen-house/
I never understood fruity drinks. If you're making a tub of PJ though...
Next time you come to Maine.. plan ahead.. go to Rite Aide and get a fishing licence. Easy peasy.
That Pickle drink was the coolest thing I have seen today! Jimmy's reaction shot was PRICELESS!
As much as I appreciate Rachel's show and admire her grasp of things, I really think she's missed her calling as a Bill Maher type stand-up comedian, lol.
She is such a smart, real, delightful person to watch! Made my afternoon; I am still chuckling over "Let him go the distance, please Jesus!!"
I'm not much of a whiskey drinker, but I'm really loving the word "pickle back" and intend to find a way to use it in everyday conversation.
Why'd you have to pickleback Judith's post Chris?
=P There's a freebe for you ;-)
http://www.hulu.com/watch/316104/late-night-with-jimmy-fallon-thu-jan-5-2012
For the full episode. It's pretty good
Hehe, Jimmy Fallon and Fred Armisen are a riot together. And if you haven't yet indulged, Portlandia on IFC is well worth a viewing or three.
His staff does crack? Hmm, must be a carryover of the legacy from the original SNL.
I don't drink, at least not in over four years, but I wanted to name something I consume a "suggestive" name, so I named my salad Pickle-hacked Salad. I didn't really add pickles, I imagined them, but if I had a Jewish pickle, I would have diced it into this masterpiece I made today, and it would have tasted delicious. I'm sure. Other ingredients: lettuce, Parmesan cheese, hard boiled egg, light Thousand Island dressing, and Spicy Cajun Mix. I might skip the pickles and call it "Gloria". I was so glad Rachel gave negative-campaign for the Republican candidates on Fallon's show, because it was crucial to do so. And people(mostly southern) like Perry--there is no other good explanation--it's the only reason he's still running. The Republican party will put an earpiece in his ear if they have to...I'm willing to bet they've thought of this, in desperation. I still say it will be Mitt who runs/loses against Obama. I didn't know Santorum was so racist, and neither did most of the people who propelled him forward...important factor.
Wait, important! Dill or sweet pickle juice?
What about Kosher or non?
I would imagine dill pickle juice, if the drink is salty as Maddow suggested.
Now you have to make us a pickle martini.
Thank you for posting this--I couldn't stay up to see it! I've really gotten to appreciate Jimmy Fallon and I've always appreciated Rachel--together they are fantastic! I agree that Rachel could fill in on a late night show herself--witty, funny and just great company.
I like the cocktail called the Latin Manhattan. It'll make you want to sing the song Tequila on karaoke after a few sips.
It would be a lot of fun to watch Rachel Maddow do the Pee wee Herman Tequila dance at the Democratic National Convention, heh, heh, heh.
Would it be a bad thing to make this with the juice from the garlic dills I make at home? They're wicked-good pickles, but I worry that the garlic would add unnecessary weirdness to the drink.
Garlic = goodness. Do it.
These videos of Rachel really tell us a lot about her personal life. She's like me. I can't stand my family either. The holiday's are truly stressful to me. Its the one time of the year I feel compelled to actually hang out with my siblings. If it wasn't for the holidays I wouldn't even know I had siblings.