Recipe Margarita: Your search for the perfect margarita ends here...
Recipe margarita. Perfect with bbq. Especially smoked brisket served mexican style with tortillas. Looking for the perfect margarita recipe? Well you have found it. Scroll down to find it, or indulge me as I examine the drink that makes many how at the moon.
Don’t be fooled: those drinks at most Mexican restaurants that flow out of a frozen yogurt machine are not Margaritas- they are adult slurpees. The classic recipe margarita is more of a Tequila Martini than a 24 oz. slushy with a drop of tequila. After all, as my mom used to say, “When you have a margarita you should know you’ve had a margarita.”No one knows for sure where or when the margarita was invented, but lore says it could have been Carlos “Danny” Herrera in 1938 near Tijuana, Mexico. Or, it possibly could have been Francisco “Pancho” Morales in Juarez, Mexico, who, not knowing exactly what cocktail the customer ordered, improvised and came up with the margarita.
Equally debated is whom is the cocktail named after? Could it be a dancer in Rosarito beach, or even for Rita Hayworth, whose real name was Margarita Cansino?
What is not debated is that the original ingredients- tequila, orange flavored liqueur, and lime juice, were and still are, the holy trinity of the cocktail. Sadly, like most American foods, the recipe margarita has been super sized to its detriment. Lime juice has been replaced in many cases by sweet and sour mix- that cloying, fake-tasting yellow stuff in plastic bottles.
Tequila, in the basic restaurant versions, is most often the cheap stuff-whether white, or the same liquor colored with caramel and called “gold.” Restaurants, in response to consumer demand for frozen drinks, and in an effort to control costs and labor, commonly use those soft-serve machines mentioned above.
So, what makes a great margarita? Well, like a lot of simple preparations- coffee, beer- the ingredients are paramount. Limes should be freshly squeezed, not those silly little plastic limes full of fake juice in the grocery store, nor sweet and sour mix.
Also, since the Mexican limes are different from our Persians- they are smaller, similar to key limes, and can be a bit sweeter- you need to add a bit of sweetener to balance the Persian lime’s bitterness. I like to put the juice of 1 lemon in the starting rotation for every 3 limes, and if it’s still a bit tart or bitter, I add a splash of simple syrup.
The next ingredient, orange flavored liqueur, can be found in $7 bottles of Triple Sec or up to $30+ for Cointreau. I am especially fond of Citronge- made in Mexico and with a better flavor than the cheap stuff but still nicely priced in the mid $20 range.
Finally, we have Tequila. Just the thought brings people back to unsavory college memories! Tequila can be harsh and bracing, or for the very high end examples like Cuervo’s La Familia, mellow and fiery like a great brandy, meant to be sipped alone.
For a recipe margarita, I prefer a silver 100% agave. The low end tequilas are typically only 51% agave and the rest of the liquor is made from cane sugar. These are for your in-laws. By the same token, the high-end anejos, aged in oak- would be a waste in a margarita, so save your money. My preference is the Hornitos silver or reposado. A margarita needs to be a bit brash. Salt? It’s up to you, I like my glass half-salted, but I like to be contrary.
Now, let’s get down to brass tacks: the recipe. A lot has been written about this- cookbooks even. But it’s really a matter of ratios. My margarita is 1 part orange liqueur, 1 part juice, and 1.5 parts Tequila. You can serve these on the rocks, strained and served straight-up, or frozen.
My favorite alternative is to make a big batch- 1 bottle of Tequila’s worth- and freeze them a minimum of 24 hours in the freezer. Since the alcohol won’t freeze, what you get after stirring is a frozen margarita without any of that annoying, cocktail-destroying ice! Ladle into a glass and presto, a margarita worth its, er, salt.
Recipe Margarita:
3 oz. Silver Tequila preferably 100% Agave
2 ozs. combination lime/lemon juice (see explanation above)
2 ozs. Orange Flavored Liqueur
Mix all of the ingredients. Pour over rocks in a rocks glass with a salted rim, or to be really authentic, strain over ice into a martini glass.
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