the movie The Big Lebowski is a bit of a
cult classic directed by the Coen
brothers in 1998 it is known for being
very quotable and for putting the White
Russian cocktail back on the map the
character of the dude played by Jeff
Bridges
I believe consumes something like nine
of these drinks during the course of the
movie let's take a look at one of those
[Music]
[Applause]
all right let's recreate the original
but before we drink the part we must
first look the part
now here's me attempting to wear the
dude's bathrobe and realizing mine is
way too small but I can power through
here we go we're gonna build this in a
rocks glass over ice starting with two
ounces or 60 mils of vodka and yes I'm
aware I should be using the Russian
vodka the dude uses Smirnoff but I'm not
too picky when it comes to vodka next we
need our coffee liqueur and in this case
the dudes choice is Kahlua we're gonna
add one ounce or 30 mils on top and now
the cream in a pinch his dude might use
a non-dairy creamer but for the most
part we're going for a heavy cream here
one ounce or 30 mils don't forget to
give it a quick stir to incorporate
everything using your index finger is
also allowed all right the white Russian
from The Big Lebowski
Cheers all right one thing you notice
right away is how sweet that Kahlua is
it's much sweeter than most of the cores
and the vanilla really overpowers it we
can improve this
but first I'm out of my element in this
bathrobe let's get this off because I'm
also roasting under these studio lights
and because we're shooting in 4k
resolution just gonna clean myself up
really quick otherwise they'll get some
comments
the first enhancement we're gonna make
is swapping out the cream for toasted
cream what the hell is toasted cream you
asked well Serious Eats recently put out
a piece describing how similar to
Browning butter browning cream will
bring out nutty butter scotch and toffee
flavors one method is to use a sous-vide
cooker taking a pint of heavy cream
adding a quarter teaspoon of baking soda
and putting it in this vacuum sealed bag
we're then going to put it in this pot
of water with the sous-vide cooker at
180 degrees or 82 degrees Celsius and
we're gonna leave it here for 24 hours
the baking soda will have added a bit of
alkalinity that will improve the
Browning process there's another method
that uses a pressure cooker and only
takes about two hours I'll link to that
on my website to make our improved White
Russian we're gonna bring back our vodka
and swap out the Kahlua for this Leopold
Brothers French press style coffee
liqueur it's very tasty it's also
significantly less sweet than Kahlua
meaning we can adjust the ratios a bit
we're gonna make it in equal parts
cocktail starting with 1.5 ounces or 45
mils of our vodka then another 1.5
ounces or 45 mils of the coffee liqueur
and finally we're gonna take our toasted
cream and for unnecessary dramatic
effect to slowly drizzle it over the
back of a spoon on top of the drink and
once again give that a quick stir and
let's see if we've made a version that's
better than el duderino z-- man this is
fantastic
the nuttiness of that toasted creme
really comes through and same with a
coffee liqueur
it's not overpoweringly sweet either so
this equal parts ratio really allows
those flavors to come through more this
is awesome I can't really get enough of
it but I had to put it down because
we're gonna see if we can do a little
bit better by making our own homemade
coffee liqueur we're gonna take one
quarter cup or about 20 grams of ground
espresso beans and put it into a mason
jar with about 1 and 1/4 cup
of water that's about 300 mils then
we're gonna seal it tight give it a
little shake and store it in the fridge
overnight for about 12 hours meanwhile
we're gonna create our sugar syrup
starting with one cup or about 200 grams
of turbinado sugar add to that one cup
or about 240 mils of water and we're
gonna bring that to a simmer just until
everything's dissolve together then pour
your sugar syrup into a large container
grab your cold brew coffee strain out
the grinds and then add that to the
mixture as well to get that vanilla
flavor we're gonna add one teaspoon or
about five mils of vanilla extract now
the base spirit for Kahlua is actually
rum so we're gonna do the same here by
adding two cups or about half a litre of
dark rum to the mixture cap it shake it
and keep it in the fridge until we're
ready to use it which is right now
instead of stirring we're gonna see if
we can get a little extra frothiness by
shaking this cocktail and again equal
parts so 1.5 ounces or 45 mils of our
coffee liqueur the same amount of our
toasted cream and again the same amount
of our vodka okay history time while we
shake a drink called the Barbara from
the early 20th century was essentially
the same spec but with creme de cacao by
the end of the 1950's we had evolved to
using trendy Kahlua with both the white
Russian and a black Russian that omitted
the cream then you're gonna double
strain the cocktail and pour in slow
motion that is so sexy I should mark
this as not-safe-for-work
but by shaking this cocktail we added in
some more dilution so we want to counter
that by straining it over a large ice
cube that will dilute more slowly than
smaller ice cubes oh and here we're
serving this in a double old-fashioned
glass alright Cheers or nazarova
okay that's it this is the winner the
creaminess the nuttiness the intense
coffee flavor without being too sweet
it's perfect I have to believe that if
the dude were offered this cocktail he
would indeed abide thanks for watching
guys I've got some more fun videos
coming up make sure you subscribe so you
don't miss them
also the TV show Archer did some
interesting riffs on the White Russian
including the green Russian and the
black Mexican I've made these as bonus
content on my patreon go check it out
and help support the channel Cheers