Wednesday, October 1, 2008

Classic Rye Cocktails, #4: The Stone Fence

It’s finally here. Autumn. My favorite season. I love the crisp nights, the sunny days, the colorful leaves.

I also love this seasonal drink, one of the oldest of the rye-based cocktails.

In 1775, while preparing for their nighttime assault on Fort Ticonderoga from British forces, Ethan Allen and his Green Mountain Boys quaffed a combination of rum and hard apple cider. They, like other New Englanders, called it a Stone Fence.

It was pretty strong stuff. But that’s what liberty demanded. If the British held on to Fort Ticonderoga, they’d control the Lake Champlain region—the crucial strategic avenue between Canada and the revolting colonies. Meantime, the fort’s artillery could be used to trap the British forces in Boston. The concoction conjured up the necessary courage. And the patriots took the fort.

The potent mixture was enjoyed throughout the Northeast during the Revolution. But by the early 1800s, rye had replaced rum—much harder to get in the post-Revolutionary period—in the drink. The inevitable presence of both apple trees and alcoholic cider across the Northeast and the Midwest kept the drink accessible and popular. By the 1860s, the temperance movement had insisted on a non-alcoholic alternative to hard cider. Sweet cider became the mixer of choice for the whiskey. And the modern Stone Fence was born.

It remained beloved through the end of the nineteenth century and into the early twentieth. One of the most famous Stone Fence aficionados was William F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody (he preferred it with a twist of lemon).

Today, the Stone Fence is perfect for those early evening fall sunsets or for relaxing after a leaf-viewing excursion.

Here’s how to make your own bit of history:

2 oz rye whiskey
8-10 oz of fresh pressed sweet apple cider

Use a tall glass, and throw a couple of ice cubes in there when you’re done. The drink depends on the quality of the cider you use. Avoid store-bought apple juice like the plague. Instead, turn to a local orchard (or, barring that, health food store or food co-op) and get something with more complex flavors (a mixture of sweet and tart is best). Unpasteurized sweet apple cider is even better, but can be hard to find.

And don’t forget to toast the Green Mountain Boys.

3 comments:

ccdemuth said...

We tried Templeton Rye with Red Jacket Orchards apple cider, a local cider found in New York State this evening with a few friends. Col. Allen would have been happy with the results.

He was a great frontiersman and patriot from whom we citizens of this Republic could learn much today:

"Those bloody lawgivers know we are necessitated to oppose their execution of the law where it points directly at our property, or give up the same... That person or country of persons are cowards indeed, if they cannot as manfully fight for their liberty, property, and life as villains can do to deprive them thereof..."

"If we have not fortitude enough to face danger, in a good cause, we are cowards indeed, and must in consequence of it be slaves. Liberty and Property; or slavery and poverty, are now before us, and our Wisdom and Fortitude, or timidity and folly, must terminate the matter."

- Col. Ethan Allen

A rye-drinker said...

Excellent. It works best with a full-flavored, local, fresh pressed, cider. Nothing is better.

jhon said...

The topography i s surprisingly convoluted. The piñon-juniper forest provides scant cover. Past the slots and fissures in Fence, at 5,060 feet we drop into the shallow, storm-carved channel and play around in the chain of scallops. pvc picket fence