The Cocktail Rachael Ray's Husband Named After Their Dog
Baseball season may be winding down for the time being — apart from the usual suspects destined to meet in the Fall Classic — but Rachael Ray recently hosted a special baseball episode of the "Rachael Ray Show." The episode features recipes for cute baseball-shaped meatballs complete with bacon laces as well as "Batter Up" corn dogs, so you can tell she's really going all-in on the theme. One of the highlights of the show, however, is a cocktail with a name that seems somewhat mysterious at first. It's called the Triple B, but what is this supposed to stand for — balls, bats, and bases? Or how about the ingredients? The drink contains beer, bourbon, and ... nothing else beginning with the letter "B" (no, there's no bacon in there).
Ray's husband John Cusimano, creator of the drink, says he came up with the name on the spur of the moment. As he admits, "I literally just made that up like ... during the commercial." He was able to spin a quick explanation, as well: "It has bourbon, it has beer, and it's for baseball." Ray chimes in. "It's also a little bit ironic because our dog's nickname is Triple B," which is short for Bella Boo Blue. She quickly points out, though, that "we will not be giving this [drink] to our dogs."
How to make the (humans-only) Triple B
The first step in creating John Cusimano's Triple B cocktail is to make your own homemade simple syrup. Don't worry, this isn't one of those chef-created recipes where it starts off with some multi-step, incredibly complex process that requires harvesting your own sugar cane. All you need to do is mix equal parts of sugar and water (Ray suggests ½ cup of each), heat until the sugar dissolves, then store the syrup in the fridge until you need it.
When you're ready to build the cocktail itself, which is something Cusimano describes as "sort of a whiskey sour topped with beer," pour 1 ½ ounce bourbon into a shaker with ¾ ounce lemon juice and ¾ ounce simple syrup. (No jigger on hand? 1 ½ ounces = 3 tablespoons while ¾ ounce = 1 tablespoon + 1 ½ teaspoon.) Spice it up with a few dashes of hot sauce –- Cusimano uses Tabasco –- then shake the drink over ice to chill it. Strain it into a pint glass filled with fresh ice, then top up the glass with about half a can of beer since, as Cusimano says, "You can't have baseball without beer!" If you want to get fancy with a garnish, a chile pepper will work, but the drink is best paired with a ball game on TV and your pooch at your side.