{"id":1688,"date":"2021-10-30T20:28:38","date_gmt":"2021-10-31T03:28:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cuisinestupide.com\/?p=1688"},"modified":"2021-10-30T20:28:38","modified_gmt":"2021-10-31T03:28:38","slug":"stitch-in-the-ditch-an-original-cocktail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cuisinestupide.com\/?p=1688","title":{"rendered":"Stitch in the Ditch: An “original” cocktail"},"content":{"rendered":"

Friends, I present to you: the Stitch in the Ditch.<\/p>\n

The name came first. The recipe later.<\/p>\n

The story of the name is pretty straightforward. When she wasn’t cooking or baking or singing virtually with Siskiyou Singers<\/a>, Chef Sin spent the better part of the pandemic sewing. Shirts, pants, pillows, doggie neckties, pencil pouches for choir members, and poop-bag pouches for pooch-walkers. Sewing and sewing. So much sewing, she wore out her old sewing machine and had to buy a new one.<\/p>\n

As she was unpacking it, she announced proudly that the new machine came with a “stitch-in-the-ditch” foot.<\/p>\n

I had no idea what that was. But I replied, “That would be a good name for a cocktail.”<\/p>\n

stitch in the ditch (n.): <\/strong>A sewing term used to describe the method of stitching along existing seams in quilting, attaching waistbands, and finishing binding.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The story of the recipe is a little more involved.<\/p>\n

First, I wanted to try something that utilizes pear brandy. The Rogue Valley of Southern Oregon, home of Harry & David<\/a>, is one of the top pear-growing regions in the country<\/a>. Clear Creek Distillery in Hood River, in Oregon’s biggest fruit-crop region, has won international awards for its pear eau de vie<\/a>.<\/p>\n

At the same time, I’ve been eager to try Becherovka<\/a>, a Czech liqueur. Bartender Kyle Linden Webster of Expatriate<\/a> in Portland, Ore., named it as the most underrated spirit of 2021<\/a>; I reasoned that its autumnal herbal undercurrents of allspice, cinnamon, and clove would pair nicely with the pear brandy.<\/p>\n

From there, I used the “Magic Cocktail Formula”<\/a> developed by Alie Ward and Georgia Hardstark of The Cooking Channel, adding citrus juice and simple syrup, modifying the proportions somewhat, and finishing with a couple of dashes of bitters.<\/p>\n

Eventually, I floated a dried Northwest pear chip from Sisters Fruit Company<\/a> on the cocktail as a garnish. Because it just seemed right.<\/p>\n

And there it is: the Stitch in the Ditch. An “original” cocktail.<\/p>\n

Why the quotation marks?<\/p>\n

Because I recognize that there are no new cocktails. Only variations on old ones.<\/p>\n

I did a pretty thorough internet search and found nothing resembling my pear-brandy-and-Becherovka concoction. But some bartender somewhere surely tried it before I did.<\/p>\n

Likewise, I couldn’t locate any reference to a cocktail called a Stitch in the Ditch. But I’ve never seen mention of the Mr. Dawson’s One-Eye Open<\/a>, either, except on the photocopied recipe I got from its inventor, Pat Carden. So somebody somewhere might have used the name first.<\/p>\n

Think of this cocktail, like its namesake, as some stitching along an existing seam. But it also reflects where my wife and I have been during the pandemic. And that makes it an original.<\/p>\n

As Ursula K. Le Guin wrote in The Dispossessed<\/em><\/a> (1974):<\/p>\n

They say there is nothing new under any sun. But if each life is not new, each single life, then why are we born?<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\n

\"\"<\/a><\/h3>\n

Stitch in the Ditch <\/h3>\n

1.5 ounces pear brandy
\n1.5 ounces Becherovka liqueur
\n1 ounce lemon juice
\n1\/2 ounce simple syrup
\n2 dashes orange bitters
\nOrange twist and\/or dried pear chip for garnish<\/p>\n

Combine all ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake vigorously for 30 seconds. Pour into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with orange twist, or float a dried pear chip on top. Or do both.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Friends, I present to you: the Stitch in the Ditch. The name came first. The recipe later. The story of the name is pretty straightforward. When she wasn’t cooking or… [Continue Reading]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1697,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[14,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1688","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sunday-specials-cocktails","category-beverages"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/cuisinestupide.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/stitch.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2LarU-re","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cuisinestupide.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1688","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cuisinestupide.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cuisinestupide.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cuisinestupide.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cuisinestupide.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1688"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/cuisinestupide.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1688\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1702,"href":"https:\/\/cuisinestupide.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1688\/revisions\/1702"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cuisinestupide.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1697"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cuisinestupide.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1688"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cuisinestupide.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1688"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cuisinestupide.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1688"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}