Infuse Vodka With This For The Best Bloody Mary Of Your Life

Just when you think you've mastered the best bloody Mary you'll ever taste, along comes some compelling improvements. Fresh tomatoes, for instance, are a welcome upgrade. So are flavor-packed garnishes like pickled vegetables, crispy bacon, and even cocktail shrimp. But for a particularly brilliant bloody, try infusing your vodka with horseradish. to really take the drink to new heights.

Horseradish is a root vegetable that may be more familiar as a vinegary condiment. In its jarred form, it's used to perk up deviled eggs and is famously paired with prime rib, but the raw vegetable has a similarly bright, spicy punch that's just as likely to wallop your sinuses. It also mixes marvelously with the tomato juice, lemon, Worcestershire sauce, and Tabasco that you'll find in a basic bloody. So marvelously, in fact, that plenty of bloody Mary recipes call for prepared horseradish as an ingredient. However, infusing your liquor with the earthy, piquant root to begin with gives the drink a deeper horseradish flavor that you can build on or let speak for itself as a subtle, but inimitable signature element.

While it might be tempting to cheap out on the alcohol you use for your infusion, the harshness of some bargain brands may be exacerbated by the horseradish's similarly astringent character. Better to use whatever vodka you already enjoy drinking. Luckily, there are plenty of value vodkas on the market that are actually worth buying.

Making horseradish-infused vodka is as simple as peeling and thinly slicing a decent-sized root (about 3 inches or so) and dropping the slivers into the bottle. However, it helps to remove a couple of ounces first to avoid liquid displacement that could cause the booze to overflow, so go ahead and make a martini while you wait. You can also add both ingredients to a quart-sized Mason jar. Resealed and stored out of the sun in a cool, dark place, the vodka will begin to take on horseradish notes over a few days, increasing in intensity as time goes on. This, of course, will not continue forever and ever. Plan to strain the infusion into another container after about a month, max, before the root has a chance to break down too much or make the hooch overly bitter. For the best flavor, store it in the freezer and use it within three months, or just make plenty of bloody Marys so you don't have to worry about that last step.