Richard Blais Presents the 'Corned Beef Collins' Cocktail

What do you get when you lock "Top Chef" -- and molecular gastronomist -- Richard Blais in a laboratory with a slab of corned beef and a bottle of Michael Collins Irish Whiskey? The answer: The "Corned Beef Collins," a St. Patrick's Day specialty for those who prefer a cocktail that drinks like a meal.

When a famous chef mixes beef, cabbage and whiskey in a glass and calls it a cocktail, it raises some eyebrows -- and elicits its fair share of "ewwws." Is this cocktail a legitimate culinary breakthrough, or the unfortunate byproduct of a late night creative session involving too much alcohol, an overactive imagination, and a blender?

Holidash recently got the chance to chew the fat about meat-infused cocktails with Blais himself. Here's what we learned:

What in the world possessed you to develop the world's premiere corned beef and cabbage cocktail?

The world's premiere and the world's first (chuckles). Michael Collins came to me to develop a drink that works with Collins Irish whiskey, so I started thinking about what kind of ingredients would enhance the whiskey's flavor and background. Obviously, corned beef and cabbage fits in with the whiskey's Irish heritage.

Think about what's happening with bacon right now. Bacon is being tried in everything because of its flavor profile: salty and smokey. In some ways, corned beef has a similar profile that works well with lots of things.

I notice that the word "cabbage" was left out of the drink's official title. Did you do that so as to not gross out folks who hate cabbage?

If I had to say, it's probably a marketing decision, but I think the name has a nice flow to it. No one wants a dish that reads like a list of ingredients, and the cabbage is sort of a back note.

In what type of glass do you serve the Corned Beef Collins?

Because the name Collins alludes to the Tom Collins, we serve it in a Collins glass. It's a little bit of word play that some people will pick up on and others won't. Oh well, we're used to dead air. We've developed a potato foam that we serve on top like a fizz, which is once again a hat tip back to the Tom Collins.

How exactly do you shrink the corned beef and cabbage down to fit into a Collins glass?

We're taking a boiled dinner along with the pickling spices and making a reduction. Then we're taking it out of the pot, straining the corned beef and reducing it into a corned beef extract. We're also using agar agar to help clarify the reduction.

One thing to remember, if you're making the corned beef reduction at home -- keep tasting it. If it reduces too far it can get salty as a result of the beef's pickling ingredients.

Do you consider the Corned Beef Collins a drink or a meal?

On St. Patrick's Day, sometimes the drink is the meal. And we're also topping it with cubes of corned beef and cabbage so people can nibble here and sip there.

Do you see the Corned Beef Collins as a St. Patrick's Day specialty, or a year-round cocktail?

I think it depends on how you feel about corned beef? People are eating corned beef in lots of dishes year-round, like Reubens for instance.

For all of you wannabe molecular gastronomists out there, following is Blais' recipe for the Corned Beef Collins:

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½ oz Michael Collins blended whiskey
2 oz fresh sour mix
2 oz club soda
1 eye droplet of corned beef extract (corned beef drippings from pan)
1 splash cabbage water
Corned beef spices and cabbage oak, aroma

Shake whiskey, corned beef extract and sour mix with ice. Pour into Collins glass and top with club soda. Smoke corned beef spice blend (bay leaf, black pepper, coriander, salt, mustard seed) with oak chips and present smoke suspended in covered, inverted glass. To serve, remove glass to infuse the air with the smell of corned beef and enjoy!