Gin

The Negroni Flip

January 23, 2014

You'll no longer have to buy a plane ticket to get in on the cocktails at Seattle's Essex: Owners Brandon Pettit and Molly Wizenberg (a.k.a. Orangette) will be sharing their favorite recipes with us, every other week. Drink up, people.

Today: A secret ingredient turns your favorite gin cocktail into something more like a milkshake.

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We’ve talked about raw egg whites in cocktails, and that means that it’s time to push on toward the next frontier: whole eggs in cocktails. It takes a leap of faith, but those who jump will not regret it. Actually, you may have made the leap without thinking about it last month, when you poured yourself a glass of boozy eggnog. Onward!

Today we’re talking flips, the general name for cocktails that contain a whole raw egg. Specifically, we’re looking at the Negroni Flip -- also known, according to our bar manager Niah, as Heaven. Niah had his first Negroni Flip at Kask, an exceptional bar in Portland, Oregon, and he’s been going on about it ever since. Basically, a Negroni Flip is just a Negroni -- equal parts gin, Campari, and sweet vermouth -- with an added dash of simple syrup and an egg, shaken until your arm falls off. (Seriously. Shake it until you can’t shake it anymore. Consider it a pre-dinner workout.)

The payoff is a gorgeous, foam-capped drink that looks like a Creamsicle in a rocks glass and tastes like Negroni-flavored ice cream. At first sip, you get a little sweetness, but wait: here comes the bitter edge of the Campari, and now a cool, velvety softness (thank you, egg) that sends it down easy. We’re not supposed to play favorites, but weeeeell, it’s our new favorite.

Negroni Flip

Serves 1

1 ounce gin
1 ounce Campari
1 ounce Carpano Antica, or whatever sweet vermouth you've got
1/4 ounce rich simple syrup (see note)
1 large egg
Orange peel, for garnish 

See the full recipe (and save it and print it) here.

Photos by Molly Wizenberg

See what other Food52 readers are saying.

  • Layla Corcoran
    Layla Corcoran
  • Dr.Insomnia
    Dr.Insomnia
  • MaryAlice
    MaryAlice
  • Laura415
    Laura415
  • Marian Bull
    Marian Bull
Brandon and Molly met because of a mutual interest in food - or, more specifically, when Brandon read Molly's food blog Orangette and sent her an e-mail that included some very effective compliments. The better part of a decade later, they co-own and run the restaurant Delancey and its sibling Essex, in Seattle. Brandon is the chef of both, and when he's not manning the wood-burning oven, he likes to make things from scratch that more sane people would probably buy, like mustard, vinegars, pretzels, and obscurely flavored liqueurs. Molly is the manager / Organizer of All Things at Delancey and Essex, and she is also the author of the New York Times bestseller A Homemade Life and the forthcoming memoir Delancey. They have a young daughter named June, who is excitedly crawling toward the refrigerator as Molly types this sentence, and two dogs named Jack and Alice.

7 Comments

Layla C. January 25, 2014
I became extremely ill after a pisco sour so raw eggs, no thank you. Is there any other way to accomplish the same texture?
 
Dr.Insomnia January 28, 2014
Some bartenders in bars where authenticity is not a requirement use powdered eggs in drinks like these. I don't know if the texture would be the same.

As for the pisco sour making you sick, people are terrible at identifying which food they consumed actually made them sick. For example, salmonella onset is 12-72 hours. You could feel sick half a day later, or 3 days later, but it's almost never the last thing that you ate or drink that has actually caused your sickness, even if that's what comes up.
 
Laura415 October 18, 2014
@Layla That's terrible but I have to agree with Dr. Insomnia While a raw egg is a risk-especially a crappy supermarket egg from battery caged unhealthy birds, my understanding of mixing alcohol and raw eggs is that the alcohol will cook the egg killing bacteria that could make you sick. If the egg was bad. If the bartender did not put the right amount of alcohol. If your immune system was down for some reason or a combo of these factors then the egg could have been what did it. It's a shame because these eggy cocktails are so good.
 
Dr.Insomnia January 23, 2014
As a resident of New Orleans where eggs in cocktails are not only common, but legendary, I'm glad to see this trend catching on.

But as a former bartender, negronis are my least favorite drink on the planet. I dislike all three of the ingredients in them, though I'll take gin in a fizz.

Still, I'm adventurous enough to give it a shot and be surprised. The big flaw in negronis, in my eyes, are all the bitter and tannic flavors. The rich simple syrup and egg will probably go far in balancing that out and making it palatable to me.
 
MaryAlice January 23, 2014
Do I really want to do this to my Negroni?
 
Marian B. January 23, 2014
You do! I'm kind of a negroni purist, but I love this. (Molly, you are an angel for sharing this with the world.)
 
Kenzi W. January 24, 2014
Ditto! I see your skepticism, but just give in. It's delicious.