While it's hardly as squirm-inducing as many of the dishes on modern restaurant menus—as an example, have you ever stopped to consider what foie gras actually is?—there's one cocktail ingredient that immediately separates the weak from the brave: raw eggs.
In truth, the lowly oeuf has a long history behind the bar, providing the foundation for an entire genre of flips, fizzes and other cocktails your grandparents' generation would be more familiar with. Fortunately, a number of North American barkeeps are grasping the yolk and steering adventurous patrons toward these cocktails. Some, such as Julie Reiner at the Clover Club in Manhattan, are experimenting with fruit purées to make more inventive whisky sours. Others, like Jackson Cannon, who dedicates an entire page of his cocktail menu at Boston's Eastern Standard to the egg, are more concerned with reviving the classics (his Grand Flip appears above). But when it comes to cracking the egg cocktail, there are few rules, only guidelines: A drink that contains egg white is known as a fizz; add the yolk and you've got yourself a flip. And what of salmonella? Get over it. The bacteria only shows up in around one in 20,000 eggs. Not bad odds, but you're even safer if you buy pasteurized eggs. Just make sure there are a couple left over for breakfast.
LE GRAND FLIP
1 ounce Calvados
1/2 ounce Benedictine
1/2 ounce orange juice
1 whole egg
1 bar spoon of sugar
Shake all the ingredients hard over ice and strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with an orange twist.
