by Wilbur, Todd
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Introduction
SODAS
SMOOTHIES
SHAKES
OTHER SIPS
SPIRITS : SCHNAPPS & LIQUEURS
SPIRITS : COCKTAILS
SPIRITS: MIXERS
TRADEMARKS
BIBLIOGRAPHY
INDEX
ACCLAIM FOR TODD WILBUR’S TOP SECRET RECIPES SERIES
“There’s something almost magically compelling about the idea of making such foods at home . . .The allure is undeniable, and [the books are] stuffed with tidbits and lore you’re unlikely to find anywhere else.”
—Boston Herald
“The mission: Decode the secret recipes for America’s favorite junk foods. Equipment: Standard kitchen appliances. Goal: Leak the results to a ravenous public.”
—USA Today
“This is the cookbook to satisfy all your cravings.”
—Juli Huss, author of The Faux Gourmet
TODD WILBUR is the author of Top Secret Recipes, More Top Secret Recipes, Top Secret Restaurant Recipes, Top Secret Recipes Lite!, and Low-Fat Top Secret Recipes (all available from Plume). When not taste-testing recipes on himself, his friends, or TV talk-show hosts,Todd lives in Las Vegas.
The trademarked brand names used in this book should not, in any way, be considered an endorsement of this book, or any of the recipes in this book by the trademark holders.This book was not prepared, approved, licensed, or endorsed by any of the owners of the trademarks or brand names referred to in this book. The author acknowledges that all of the recipes have been created and kitchen tested independently of any food manufacturers mentioned here. Terms mentioned that are known or believed to be trademarks or service marks have been indicated as such. See the section on “Trademarks.”
PLUME
Published by the Penguin Group
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First published by Plume, a member of Penguin Putnam Inc.
First Printing, February
Copyright © Todd Wilbur, 2002
All rights reserved
To the best of the author’s knowledge, the information regarding company backgrounds and product histories is true and accurate. Any misrepresentation of factual material is completely unintentional.
REGISTERED TRADEMARK—MARCA REGISTRADA
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eISBN : 978-1-101-11696-8
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For Pamela—she’s the real thing. Beautiful inside and out. She’s my proof that soul mates do exist.
INTRODUCTION
Today I’ve been drinking the world’s number one beverage but I can’t give you the recipe. Unless you already know how to combine two hydrogen atoms with one oxygen atom in abundance, you’ll have to settle for drinking it out of a bottle or straight off the tap.
What I can give you, though, is a bunch of recipes to duplicate the taste of the other drinks we hold dear, including several iced versions for the second most popular beverage in the world: tea. You’ll recognize many of these products, because it would be nearly impossible to exist in civilization on this planet without being reminded several times each day that you absolutely must drink these wonderful drinks. And that you will enjoy them. And that when you are thirsty again you will come back for more.
It’s true that this book includes clone recipes for some of the most successful products in the world—those drinks you’ve enjoyed since birth—with long, remarkable histories and huge profits. But a collection such as this would not be complete without also including copycat formulas for the newer, trendier drinks that have garnered more recent worship.
Sure, I’ve got recipes in here for sodas, milk shakes, smoothies, lemonades, coffee drinks, and punches, but this book isn’t just for the teetotalers. If you, uh, “total” more than “tee,” I’ve got some of the coolest cocktail, mixer and liqueur-making recipes ever assembled. Spirits were around a long time before fizzy flavored sodas and grande Frappuccinos, and this book recognizes that delicious cocktail recipes are just as fun to re-create at home as are recipes for famous foodstuffs found in previous Top Secret Recipes volumes.
This book is divided into two major sections, with the first half consisting of clone recipes for famous sodas, milk shakes, and smoothies, plus a section for drinks that don’t fit into those three categories. This is where you learn how to re-create your favorite sodas using the old soda fountain technique: adding flavored syrup to cold soda water.This is also where you get the secret to mixing a Dairy Queen Blizzard clone of your own at home so that the ice cream won’t get too runny when you stir in all the chunks. If you like coffee, you’ll find out what secret ingredients will copy a Starbucks Frappuccino and the instant General Foods International Coffees. You’ll find out how to make the perfect lemonade from scratch and how to duplicate the taste of Sunny Delight using more fruit juice than the real thing’s got in it.
The second half of the book is devoted to spirits.This is where you find clone recipes for famous brands such as Kahlúa, Bailey’s Irish Cream, and Grand Marnier.You’ll find out how to add flavorings and fruit to inexpensive vodka to create a variety of delicious liqueurs. In this section you’ll also get dozens and dozens of recipes for the most popular cocktails from America’s largest restaurant chains. If you’ve ever been to Applebee’s, Chili’s, T.G.I. Friday’s, Planet Hollywood, or Outback Steakhouse and have seen the glossy table cards with beautiful photos of delicious and colorful cocktails on them and wished you could make drinks that good at home, this is where you learn how. And right at the end you’ll get the secrets to making the delicious mixers that go into those awesome drinks, all from scratch.
So grab a straw and dive on in. As with all the other Top Secret Recipes books, measure carefully and follow the directions precisely. In no time at all you’ll soon be downing a duplicate of your favorite drink, from your favorite glass, while sitting in your favorite chair.
If you’d like to try some clone recipes for solid food, check out the other books in the Top Secret Recipes series or come to the web site at www.TopSecretRecipes.com.
If you have suggestions for other drinks to clone, drop me some e-mail at [email protected].
I’ll be back again to uncover more of your most requested clone cuisine secrets in the next book, Even More Top Secret Recipes, coming soon. Until then, cheers to you.
—Todd
Wilbur
SODAS
When America figured out how to mix carbon dioxide gas with water in the early 1800s a monumental industry was born. The fizzy fluid, invented to clone carbonated water found in natural springs, was originally thought to be a magical curative for a variety of ailments ranging from indigestion to arthritis. Ambitious pharmacists looking to strike it rich with their own new “patent medicines” added custom mixtures of herbs, flowers, fruits, berries, and bark to the soda water, creating a wide range of flavors with a variety of claimed health benefits.Their background in medicine and chemistry made these pharmacists perfectly suited for such a task, despite the many dubious claims of miracle cures provided by the new formulas. It is these pharmacists who are responsible for launching today’s monumental soft drink industry.
Since alcoholic drinks are called “hard drinks,” the new beverages became “soft drinks.” But they were more than just bubbling thirst quenchers, since soft drinks in this era had some potent medicinal ingredients: Coca-Cola contained cocaine extracted from coca leaves to provide energy; Pespi-Cola contained pepsin, an enzyme to aid in digestion; and 7UP came packed with lithium, used today to treat depression and mental illness.
Through the end of the 1800s and into the twentieth century, customers stopped in at soda fountains at their local pharmacies for a dose of chat, refreshment, and remedy, and walked out with a great big smile. It’s no wonder these stores became the central attraction in town. At the soda fountain, when a soft drink was ordered, sweetened syrup was added to cold soda water, it was stirred up a bit and served ready to drink. In the early days of these soda fountains ice cream sodas were hugely popular, as were root beer, ginger ale, and a whole mess of different cola drinks.
Still, the soda business was limited by the fact that customers needed access to a pharmacy. For soda pioneers to make their products fly high they had to figure out how to go from getting the people to the soda, to getting the soda to the people.At first, glass bottles blown by hand were filled with the drink and capped with corks. But pressure from the carbonation was too much for the early stoppers, and many bottles blew their tops before arriving at their destinations. Inventors racked their brains for years to figure out a design for the perfect stopper until, 1500 patents later, the crown bottle cap was invented in 1892. The glass bottle-blowing machine followed the crown cap a few years after that, and the soda distribution industry popped into high gear.
When Prohibition made it illegal to drink the hard stuff, soda sales skyrocketed. Bars that used to serve real beer had to substitute root beer when liquor-free drinks became the legal alternative to booze. As an added bonus, many of the soda brands were used as underground mixers in illegal drinking parties. Ginger ale was a very fashionable mixer in the 20s, as was 7UP, which was invented during Prohibition. So popular in cocktails was that particular lemon-lime soda that when Prohibition was repealed in 1933, 7UP was heavily marketed as a mixer.
During Prohibition convenience drove the soda industry. Vending machines were created that dispensed sodas into a cup so that workers could get their brand-name refreshment on the job, and six-pack cartons made it easy to carry home several bottles of soda at once.Thirsty consumers were bombarded with a variety of new flavors, and as the country was about to go to war, metal cans were introduced. Metal cans were lighter and more durable than bottles, but at that time the metal was more costly than glass, plus it made the drinks taste funny.
The can problems were fixed after the war, and in 1957 the first lightweight aluminum cans were used to package sodas. It took old customers some time to adjust to the new metal containers, but today more sodas are sold in cans than any other way. The plastic bottles introduced in the 70s are now the second most common package for sodas, with glass bottles practically fading into obscurity.
These days the cocaine is gone from Coke, Pespi is pepsin-free, and 7UP comes without the attitude-adjusting benefits of lithium. When we drink these drinks today it’s usually because we’re thirsty. Or we need to get kicked up a notch by the caffeine that’s still added to several brands. Whatever the motivation, Joe Average American will knock back over 50 gallons of soda this year, all by himself. With more than 450 different varieties now competing for attention, it’s no wonder soft drink ads are everywhere we turn.
Choosing which of the most popular sodas to clone for this book was fairly easy: I picked the most successful brand of the most popular flavors (in other words, Coke instead of Pepsi). I would have preferred to create these recipes using the original product’s syrup without dilution, since it’s really the syrup that we’re cloning. But that wasn’t always possible. Most of the time, I had to use the original product right out of the bottle or can, as you find it in any store. Then I worked backward, concentrating the flavors, to develop thick, sweet syrup that could be made from scratch.
When the syrup’s done, the soda’s done. When you’ve cooled off your syrup and are ready to have a drink, simply add the proper amount of flavored syrup to cold soda water, just as the jerks did (c’mon, that’s what they were called) at the soda fountains of yesteryear. Give the drink a little stir, add some ice, and you’ve just used an old-fashioned technique to re-create one of today’s most popular beverages.
A&W CREAM SODA
Sure, Roy Allen and Frank Wright are better known for their exquisite root beer concoction sold first from California drive-up stands under the A&W brand name. But these days the company makes a darn good vanilla cream soda as well. And the formula is one that we can easily clone at home just by combining a few simple ingredients. Most of the flavor comes from vanilla, but you’ll also need a little lemonade flavor Kool-Aid unsweetened drink mix powder. This mix comes in .23-ounce packets and provides the essential citric acid that gives this soda clone the necessary tang of the real thing. Once you make the syrup, let it cool down in the fridge, then just combine the syrup with cold soda water in a 1 to 4 ratio, add a little ice, and get sipping.
1cups granulated sugar
⅛ teaspoon Kool-Aid lemonade
unsweetened drink mix
1 cup very hot water
1 cup corn syrup
½ teaspoon plus ¼ teaspoon
vanilla extract
10 cups cold soda water
1. Dissolve the sugar and Kool-Aid drink mix in the hot water in a small pitcher.
2. Add the corn syrup and vanilla extract and stir well. Cover and chill syrup until cold.
3. When the syrup is cold, pour ¼ cup syrup into 1 cup cold soda water. Stir gently, add ice, and serve.
• MAKES 10 10-OUNCE SERVINGS.
A&W ROOT BEER
In 1919, when Roy Allen and Frank Wright started selling their new root beer beverage to a thirsty America, national Prohibition was taking its grip on the country.Their timing couldn’t have been better. No longer able to legally drink real beer, thirsty patriots had to settle for this sweet, foamy concoction derived from roots, herbs, and berries. Roy and Frank had thirteen years of Prohibition to make their mark and their fortune from this refreshing drink. By 1933, when Prohibition came to a screeching halt, Roy and Frank had 171 stands in various shapes and sizes, each with the familiar A&W logo on them, all across the country. These drive-up stands with their tray boys and tray girls bringing cold drinks out to the cars were an inspiration for many other roadside stands and diners, and the prelude to the popular fast food drive-thrus of today. You can still get a foamy mug of A&W root beer at outlets across the country, or just enjoy some from a 12-ounce can.
But if it’s some home cloning you’d like to get into, check out this improved version of A&W Root Beer that was first printed in More Top Secret Recipes. The beauty is you won’t have to worry about collecting roots, herbs, and berries like the pros do. Instead you just need to get some root beer extract, manufactured by McCormick, that you’ll find near the vanilla in your local supermarket. Make up some root beer syrup, let it cool off in the fridge, and you can whip up 10 servings by comb
ining the syrup with cold soda water whenever you’re ready to drink. Cool, eh?
1cups granulated sugar
1 cup very hot water
1 cup corn syrup
1 teaspoon McCormick root beer
concentrate
10 cups cold soda water
1. Dissolve the sugar in the hot water in a small pitcher.
2. Add the corn syrup and root beer concentrate and stir well. Cover and chill syrup until cold.
3. When the syrup is cold, pour ¼ cup syrup into 1 cup of cold soda water. Stir gently, add ice, and serve.
• MAKES 10 10-OUNCE SERVINGS.
COCA-COLA
When Atlanta pharmacist John Pemberton whipped up his first cocaine-laced drink he was actually cloning Vin Mariani, a coca leaf-infused red wine that had been selling successfully in Europe since 1863. John’s version—called “Pemberton’s French wine coca”—had cocaine and wine in it too, but John added kola nut extract to give the drink additional kick (as if it needed it) from the stimulant alkaloid caffeine. Shortly after John had perfected his new drink, local Prohibition hit Atlanta in 1886, and the booze had to come out. The wine was replaced with sugar syrup to make it sweet along with some citric acid for tang, and the name of the new drink was changed to “Coca-Cola,” representing the beverage’s two very stimulating ingredients. As enthusiasm for cocaine-based tonics waned toward the end of the century, Coca-Cola manufacturers were again forced to ditch another key ingredient. By 1903, the cocaine in Coca-Cola had to come out too.