Spice Your Holidays with McClure's Bloody Mary Mix

By Chuck Sudo in Food on Dec 27, 2011 7:20PM

Christmas shopping invariably comes with buying a gift or three for yourself. We did most of our shopping at Ms. Mint's Local and fair Trade Holiday Bazaar and found this bloody mary mix from McClure's Pickles.

McClure's is located outside of Detroit. They also have a test kitchen in Brooklyn where they research and develop their recipes for market. Their bloody mary mix is among the best mixes we've ever purchased retail. It's a simple recipe: they take the remaining brine from their spicy pickles, fresh pressed cucumber juice, tomato paste, fresh cracked salt and black pepper, chopped peppers, garlic and dill to make a kicking juice cocktail. On first inspection, this mix is teeming with dill, with a nice lingering pepper kick in the back of the the palate. The inclusion of tomato paste also makes this a thicker bloody mary mix that stands up well to the melting of ice. With other bloody mary mixes — either made from scratch or store-bought — there's a separation that occurs: water, followed by juice, and the spices at the bottom. We found minimal separation between the three here

McClure's bloody mary mix also makes a great standalone vegetable juice, can work as a marinade for meats, or as a soup ingredient. We used a quarter cup to marinade some diced chicken breasts we used for some chili and it made for all the spices we needed.

You can buy McClure's bloody mary mix locally at Provenance Food and Wine, the Noble Grape, Fox & Obel, Pastoral or Whole Foods South Loop, Halsted Street, Waveland and Gold Coast locations. If you plan on buying the mix, get a jar of their spicy pickles, while you're at it. You can also buy this and other McClure's products online by the case.