Spatula Diaries: Local citrus perfect for cocktails

Fresh orange and grapefruit juice are key components in loads of classic and modern cocktails, and the fresher the juice, the better the drink. It’s time to create some really memorable cocktails with all that gorgeous fruit now being harvested in backyards and on farms across South Louisiana.

With access to a grapefruit tree, I opted first for a Salty Dog, a timeless drink that combines vodka—or sometimes gin—with grapefruit juice, and it’s served on the rocks in a glass rimmed with salt. Its salt-less counterpart, of course, is the Greyhound.

Here’s the recipe.

Greyhound or Salty Dog recipe

From Magic in a Shaker by Marvin J. Allen

1 ¼ ounces vodka
5 ounces fresh grapefruit juice
Ice
Salt (optional)

Pour vodka and juice over ice in a rocks glass. For a Salty Dog, rim the glass with salt first before adding the ingredients.

As for salt, I rimmed my glasses with two of the salts I keep on hand from Red Stick Spice Co.: Murray River Flake Salt (shown) and Madagascar Vanilla Salt. Owner Anne Milneck says that other good choices for cocktails are black Hawaiian salt, great with milky-chocolate-caramel martinis, and red Hawaiian salt, which looks really pretty with citrus cocktails. Nice salts are a fun way to doozy up your drink.

Maggie Heyn Richardson is a regular 225 contributor and author of Hungry for Louisiana, An Omnivore’s Journey, the stories behind eight of Louisiana’s most beloved dishes, with recipes. Reach her at hungryforlouisiana.com.