Rules for the Negroni
Some baseline rules as I set out to create my house recipe
You may have thought that I learned my lesson after I said my house Martini wouldn’t have olives in it and then turns out the one I liked best is based around a gin made of olives, but you’d be wrong :) I need to set some initial boundaries on what the cocktail is before I dive into testing different recipes, and I’ll do the same for the Negroni today.
A Negroni is a Gin Drink
Yes, the format works with just about any spirit, but then it becomes a different drink entirely. My house Negroni will be a true and honest take, not a variation on the theme.
And while I’m at it, a Negroni is worth making with good gin. Since I now always have Gin Mare in my bar for my Martinis, that’s what I’ll be using in my Negronis as well. No new gin tests here, we’re sticking with what worked best last time.
A Negroni is a 3-Ounce Drink
I see a lot of recipes that extend either the gin or the bitter to more than an ounce without backing down anything else, and that doesn’t work for me. My house drink will be 3 ounces, stirred with ice.
The resultant ABV is less important here, but I’ve updated my Drink Ratio Google Sheet with tabs for each house cocktail so you can follow along. For the most part, your Negroni will drink at about 22%.
Negronis are Best-Served Up
Yes, you can serve a Negroni over ice, and I often do. But I almost always find that I prefer the drink if it’s stirred til its frigid and strained into a cold glass without anything else.
Negronis Don’t Need a Garnish
Yes, at a bar you’ll usually see an orange peel in your drink. And that’s fine! But at home, I really don’t think it’s necessary. If you want to, then go for it. But I won’t always be zesting an orange for my house Negroni.
A Negroni Doesn’t Need to Be Truly “Equal Parts”, But…
This last one is complicated. As I’ve said for years and years, the beauty of the Negroni is that a 1-1-1 recipe can be so complex. And I think that still holds true: a Negroni is 1 ounce of gin, 1 ounce of vermouth, and 1 ounce of a bitter. However, it doesn’t necessarily need to be an ounce of the same vermouth or bitter, but rather a combination.
The easiest example is splitting the vermouth into half dry and half sweet. I often do this, and I’ve liked the results. That actual ratio is something I’m going to test a lot more in the coming weeks. Similarly, you could split the bitter into half Campari and half Averna - any amaro will do!
My House Ingredients
This is the list of things I’ll be working with, and my house Negroni will be some 3-ounce combination of these things:
Gin Mare
Carpano Antica Formula (Sweet Vermouth)
Campari
Averna
Meletti
That’s 1 gin, 1 dry vermouth, 1 sweet vermouth, and 5 amari. So the gin will always be an ounce, the vermouth will be an ounce of a mixture of dry and sweet, and the bitter will be an ounce of some yet-unknown concoction.
Next week, I’ll detail some of the tests I’m running to find the right mix of those final 2 ounces of vermouth and bitter to create the perfect house Negroni!