The Pantry with Ryan Chetiyawardana is a monthly column in which the award-winning bartender and bar owner shares how to use unexpected ingredients in easy-to-make home cocktails.
My mum is an incredible cook, and she taught us from a young age about the magic a pinch of salt can bring beyond savoury applications. Salt became a hallmark of my early work (as noted by Marco Pierre White about my winning cocktail when I was first crowned Diageo Reserve World Class UK Bartender of the Year in 2009), and it has been a key part of our flavour toolkit across the bars. It has been the same with vinegar – I’m obsessed with the varieties available, their power in non-alcoholic applications, and the breadth of textures, aromas and nuances they can bring.
But, even with a good deal of experience with both these seasonings, it was only when hearing from some amazing experts at a recent Mr Lyan Studio Lates talk did I start to really think on how overlooked they can be in the arsenal for cocktails at home. We had Maddy Norval from Dornoch Craft Vinegar Co, acclaimed food writer Angela Clutton and Gregorie Marshall from the stunning – and madly delicious – Blackthorn Salt lend us their expertise. The discussion revealed how historic these flavour powerhouses really are, and how much opportunity they provide for shifting flavour in fascinating directions.
Both salt and vinegar can be used directly in cocktails – people often notice how salt provides the obvious salinity, but it also lifts other flavours and can also balance bitterness in an amazing way. Gregorie’s unique salt also adds creaminess, sweetness and a fascinating light tannin that’s imparted by blackthorn branches which are used to evaporate off water from the sea air into salt. Similarly, vinegar can provide a very different acidity than you’d usually find in citrus or a sharp apple, and add body, weight and specific accents from the type of vinegar base you’re using. (Do look out for vinegars double fermented from their base; fermented raspberry vinegar is very different from neutral vinegar flavoured with raspberry juice.)
They can also both be amazing preservative solutions. Salt is one of the oldest ways of preserving and transforming foods, but the type of salt you use makes a really big difference. Try get small-batch salts (even though they’re more expensive, a little goes a long way and your tongue will thank you), which are packed with other micronutrients, not just the tongue-searing sharpness of the sodium chloride used in commercial salts.
Preserving fruits and herbs in vinegar to make a shrub is one of my favourite cordials to use in a cocktail. Take 150 grams of pineapple cubes and 3 stems of tarragon and infuse in 300 millilitres of apple cider vinegar for three days at room temp (keep out of the light, and ensure the fruits and herbs remain submerged). After three days, transfer the contents to a pan and cook for five minutes over a medium heat, then strain and whisk in an equal weight of white sugar. This will keep in a clean container in the fridge for weeks, and is great simply served with soda, or in the cocktail below. But experiment with different combinations!
Mana Fizz
Makes 1 cocktail
Ingredients
50ml Teremana Blanco
20ml lemon juice
15ml pineapple shrub
15ml sugar syrup
100ml Fever-Tree soda (which contains Blackthorn salt)
Slice pink grapefruit, to serve
Method
Add the tequila, lemon juice, shrub and sugar syrup to a shaker and shake well with ice. Double-strain over fresh ice in a highball glass and top with the chilled soda. Garnish with a sprig of mint and a slice of pink grapefruit.
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