Cocktail recipe
Bloody Mary
Tomato, vodka, citrus and savoury spice make a brunch classic with real backbone.
Ingredients
- 60 ml (2 oz) vodka
- 120 ml (4 oz) chilled tomato juice
- 15 ml (½ oz) fresh lemon juice
- 3 dashes Worcestershire sauce
- 2 dashes hot sauce
- 0.5 g (about ⅛ tsp) celery salt
- 0.2 g (about ⅛ tsp) freshly ground black pepper
- 5 ml (1 tsp) prepared horseradish, optional
- Garnish: 1 celery stalk and 1 lemon wedge
Preparation
Add the vodka, tomato juice, seasonings and ice to a glass. Stir gently. Garnish with celery and lemon, if using.
Glassware
Tall highball glass with cubed ice
History
The Bloody Mary has competing origin narratives. Entertainer George Jessel was publicly associated with vodka and tomato juice by 1939; the 1939 *Cotton Club* guide printed his “Pick-Me-Up” with tomato juice, vodka, Tabasco and lemon. Bartender Fernand “Pete” Petiot, who worked at Harry’s New York Bar in Paris and later at New York’s St. Regis, claimed to have invented or transformed the drink, particularly its fully seasoned modern form. The Oxford Companion to Spirits & Cocktails cautions that neither claimant’s earliest invention story has contemporary proof. The St. Regis version, often called the Red Snapper, was a documented house specialty by the early 1940s. The celery-stick garnish became a later convention, not an established feature of the first recipes.
Mixology View
The drink’s origin is an evolution, not one settled moment. Mixology credits Jessel’s early documented association and Petiot’s influential seasoned hotel version, while treating both invention claims cautiously.