Jerk-Spiced Bloody Mary Recipe

Reprinted with permission from Juke Joints, Jazz Golf equipment & Juice by Toni Tipton-Martin, copyright © 2023. Images by Brittany Conerly. Revealed by Clarkson Potter, a division of Penguin Random Home, LLC.

The Bloody Mary has lengthy been a well-liked morning-after drink, recognized for its capability to assuage signs of a hangover. There are only a few recipes in my assortment of African American cookbooks for the traditional mixture, which is ordinarily made with vodka, tomato juice, Worcestershire sauce, and seasonings, however the drink is experiencing a little bit of a renaissance recently. The Bottomless Bloody Mary on restaurant brunch menus, made extra boldly with rum, flavored vodka, and potent spices, could also be driving this pattern.

I like the flavour departure within the Bloody Maria, a fiery Mexican model constructed with tequila; or the complexity of iconic restaurateur-model-author-entrepreneur Barbara “B.” Smith’s Cajun Mary, which she included in B. Smith Cooks Southern-Model in 2009. Smith’s ode to Louisiana will be made candy with Absolut Mango vodka or spicy with Absolut Pepper vodka and garnished with spicy child okra and blue-cheese–stuffed olives. And my curiosity was positively piqued by Pat and Gina Neely’s flavor-balancing act. The tv meals personalities re-imagined the morning libation with hot-pepper vodka, vegetable juice, barbecue sauce, and horseradish of their 2009 cookbook, Down Dwelling with the Neelys: A Southern Household Cookbook.

I additionally fell onerous for the concept of Bloody Marys for a Crowd, in Elle Simone Scott’s 2022 cookbook, Boards—so onerous that I included a model of the recipe in Prepare dinner’s Nation journal, the place I’m editor-in-chief. Elle begins by making a giant batch of traditional Bloodies, however for selection, she units out a large assortment of rim salts, skewers, and garnishes—all the pieces from traditional olives and celery to hen wings and poached shrimp—so folks can customise their drink to their coronary heart’s content material.

Ultimately, although, it was the Bloody Mary à la Jerk, included in Helen Willinsky’s 1990 ebook, Jerk Barbecue from Jamaica, that gained me over. Impressed by its use of sweet-hot spices, the model that follows swaps rum for vodka and doubles simply to serve a big crowd. Rimming the surface fringe of the serving glass with the jerk seasoning intensifies the island expertise, however it’s elective. 

Serves 8 to 10.

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