The Caesar is a great substitute for bad Stampede beer
Whether you like it or not the Calgary Stampede is the city’s global claim to fame. It’s our Mardi Gras and Oktoberfest all rolled up into 10 big days of hoedowns and hootenannies.
It took a while for this easterner to warm up to “The Greatest Outdoor Show on Earth” and its surrounding shindigs and while avoiding the lame selection of beers at most of these functions I have discovered what should be Calgary’s other claim to fame: the tangy zesty drink invented in our fair city: the Caesar.
In 1969 Walter Chell concocted the new drink at The Calgary Inn (now The Westin) for two reasons: first to be a signature cocktail for their new Italian restaurant Marco’s; and second as an homage to one of Walter’s favourite Italian dishes Spaghetti Vongole (or spaghetti with clams in tomato sauce).
The unique tipple caught on like a prairie fire and soon became Calgary’s most popular cocktail. In the drink’s 44-year existence it has grown in popularity to the point that now 350 million Caesars are consumed yearly in Canada — that is roughly 12 to 13 per year for those of legal drinking age. Largely unknown outside of Canada the Calgary creation has become the country’s unofficial national cocktail — and when the beer selection sucks it’s what this scribe sips back.
Interestingly Chell’s clam juice/tomato juice combo predates the invention of Mott’s Clamato juice by one year. Mott’s hired Chell both to advise on a pre-mixed version of the blended juices and as a spokesperson for some of Mott’s early ad campaigns.
For Stampede partiers the Caesar is a popular hangover cure — and as a bonus you can think of it as a (somewhat) healthy salad in a glass. There are more varieties of Caesars than you can shake a fiddle bow at as vodka is no longer the only spirit in the mix. I’ve had Caesars made with tequila gin rum and — the most interesting and maybe sacrilegious to some whisky fans — a great version made with the big peaty whisky Ardbeg. This smoky peaty whisky matches well with the clams in the juice.
One of the fun things about Caesars is the variety of garnishes available to customize your cocktail and make it unique like your very own single-serve yuckaflux. Anything and everything goes — from shrimp pickled veggies and varieties of salted rims to bacon strips and skewered clams — so each mixologist can put their own signature on the drink.
To get you started here is Wikipedia’s take on the classic:
“Basic preparation of a Caesar follows the “one two three four” rule. The recipe calls for 1–1.5 ounces of vodka two dashes of hot sauce three dashes of salt and pepper four dashes of Worcestershire sauce and topped with 4–6 ounces of Clamato and served with ice. The ingredients are poured into a glass rimmed with celery salt or a mixture of salt and pepper and garnished with a celery stalk and lime. The Caesar is an unusual drink in that it can be mixed in bulk and stored for a period of time before drinking.”
The recipe for the Maple BBQ Caesar (pictured) submitted to Mott’s Clamato by @CaesarClint is below. Do you have a favourite twist on the Ceasar? Add your own recipes in the comments.
Maple BBQ Caesar
Accessories:
Glass mason jar
Garnish lime wedge (optional)
Assorted cheese cubed
Maple bacon knot on a skewer
Rim fresh cracked salt and pepper
Bacon bits (optional)
Ingredients:
1 oz. Canadian whisky
1 spoon maple bbq sauce
2 dashes hot sauce
3 dashes Worcestershire
3 dashes fresh cracked salt and pepper
4 oz. Mott’s Clamato
Instructions:
Rim the jar glass. Fill with ice. Add ingredients in order. Stir. Garnish.
