The Bull Shot is by far my most favourite drink of the world - not only because I love its savoury and spicy taste, but also because of the nice memories I have with it.
Over the last years my job brought me several times to White Turf in St. Moritz, a hoity-toity horse race, frequented by the rich and famous on a frozen lake in Switzerland. Here, I was lucky to work with the photographer Giancarlo Cattaneo, a St. Moritz local who seems to know everyone, from bar keepers, night club owners to super celebrities. He is a member of the esteemed Cresta Run, a noble club owning a natural ice skeleton racing toboggan track in the middle of St. Moritz, established in 1884.
This British club in Switzerland is for members only, but Giancarlo took me in as his guest and showed me around. While he parked me at the club house's old and very cosy British style bar, I watched him, older than 60 years of age I assume, plunge himself down the dangerous ice canal on a simple, almost antique steel sledge.
How bold and brave of him! As bold and brave as the Bullshot, the bar's signature drink, that the immaculate Italian waiters of this Britih establishment served us after his thankfully uneventful ride.
While the Bloody Mary whose taste the Bull Shot comes close to, still has a sweetness deriving from the tomato juice base, the Bull Shot's has none of it. It tastes powerful and hearty and uses a beef consommé as filler, which is not simply a soup, but a rather strong, clear beef broth. Did I mention that it was 11 in the morning? While Richard couldn't really enjoy the cold vodka broth , I could have bathed in it. It's salty, tangy, a bit sour, spicy - a drink that truely wakes your spirits! It definitely woke mine.
Here is the recipe from scratch. The consomme takes time, but can simmer away all those hours that we spend in home office...
For 2,5 liters of broth:
1kg beef for a soup - ask your local butcher for advice. I used a part of the leg
1kg beef bones. Boil them for a few minutes in water and throw the water away
Place first the bones and then the meat in 2- 3 liters of cold water.
Cut an onion in half and roast in a pan without oil until the surface turns dark brown.
Add the onions with a little bit of salt, 5 peppercorns and 5 juniper berries as well as 2-3 laurel leaves and bring to a boil. Then, immediately turn the heat down and let simmer for appr. 3 hours. Then for the last hour, add diced leek, a carrot, and appr. 100g celery.
Remove all ingredients and sieve by using a fine colander or a muslin cloth. Let cool over night.
The next morning, remove the fat that has settled on the surface using a big spoon.
Now, the broth needs to be clarified with the following:
300g of minced lean beef meat
finely chop 1 carrot, ca. 80g celery, and leek, 40g tomato
1 table spoon tomato paste
Mix all of this with 2 egg whites and 1-2 ice cubes.
Add the mix to the cold broth and bring to a boil while continuously stirring, then turn heat down to let is simmer for 1 hour. Whenever the mix comes to the surface pop holes into the surface using a soup ladle.
After 1 hour, pour the liquid through a fine colander - et voila: the Consomme should be clear and have a light brown colour. The Bull Shot base is ready.
Let it cool down and fill a longdrink glas with ice cubes and stir in:
150ml of our Consommé
45-50ml Vodka
1 dash of lemon juice and a dash of Tabasco
Worcestershire Sauce
You might want to add a bit of salt
Cheers to the brave!
