Today is the second anniversary of this blog. Its namesake is perhaps obvious: Kingsley Amis’s Lucky Jim, arguably the ur campus novel. It is also a novel awash in booze. These two details are not a coincidence. They even coincide in a drink, the recipe for which I am sharing with you today.
As Britain’s poet laureate of liquor, Amis was also the author of On Drink, in which directions for the Lucky Jim are set down. I do not approve of his suggestion to use it as “an excellent love-philtre to press on shy young ladies, if there are any of these left.”
The Lucky Jim (serves six)
- 2/3 bottle of vodka
- shot of vermouth
- 2 cucumbers (leaving skin on one, slice thin)
- ice in a pitcher
Chill six glasses. Combine vodka and vermouth in pitcher. Stir. Slice the unsliced cucumber into 2″ chunks and squeeze through a citrus juicer. Strain and pour into the vodka-vermouth mixture. Stir. Pour into chilled glasses. Garnish with thinly sliced cucumber. Serve.
I have never made this drink, but I imagine it would look like this picture, which originally appeared in Martha Stewart Living and accompanied a recipe for lemongrass chicken. Martha adds mint to her cucumber-and-vodka cocktail. I’m not crazy about mint, but I suppose I could add it to the Lucky Jim by crushing some leaves along with the cucumber chunks. Et voilà: blog cocktail!
If your blog had an official cocktail, what would it be?
Posted by Flavia on June 22, 2009 at 10:02 am
The Negroni: equal parts gin, sweet vermouth, and Campari (I recommend 2 oz. of each), shaken until frosty.
It’s one of my two or three favorite cocktails (alongside the martini and the sidecar), but it’s very strong, and Campari isn’t for everyone. People think they’ll like it — in the glass it looks like a sweet, fruity, girly cocktail, rather like a Cosmo or a Metropolitan — but they usually don’t.
So, perfect for my blog!
Posted by Lucky Jane on June 22, 2009 at 11:06 am
Interesting approach. The Lucky Jim strikes me as mild, unassertive, though probably refreshing, and made more so by Martha Stewart’s addition of mint leaves (and Cointreau): it does fit my blog—nominally refreshing because I keep using green themes—though I wouldn’t choose it in real life.
When I tended bar in grad school, we never carded people who ordered Campari (they weren’t many), since you have to be among the initiated to order it. A younger or inexperienced drinker who happened to order it wouldn’t get beyond the first sip. Until recently colored with cochineal, Campari occasioned one of my inadvertent lapses from vegetarianism years ago.
Posted by Moria on June 22, 2009 at 10:21 am
Oh, just plain old Hendricks on the rocks. Slice of cucumber optional, pending seasonal produce and period of pay cycle.
Posted by Lucky Jane on June 22, 2009 at 10:59 am
I was going to write, “I adore gin!”—but that seems unseemly at this hour. I’m down to the better part of a bottle of Trader Joe’s, which is surprisingly decent. It’s not like swallowing a pinecone, but certainly serviceable enough for gin-and-tonics.
Posted by Flavia on June 22, 2009 at 12:23 pm
(Oh, and what I failed to say: happy blogiversary!”
Posted by annieem on June 22, 2009 at 2:14 pm
Happy blogiversary, Jane!
Ginger Martini is my blog’s cocktail: (vodka, coarsely chopped ginger, a little lime juice, and a twist of lime).
Posted by Lucky Jane on June 23, 2009 at 8:46 am
Cheers, y’all! Cin-cin. . .
Posted by BigTomBB on July 7, 2009 at 5:43 pm
Do you think Michel Jackson killed himself?
Posted by Lucky Jane on July 7, 2009 at 6:13 pm
Who’s Michel Jackson?