Freezer cocktails: 3 recipes for the home bartender to rustle up

Sam Wylie-Harris delves inside a new cocktail book that reveals how to have your go-tos on standby in the freezer

- 

"WHAT'S a freezer cocktail? It works like this: Take a full bottle of the primary liquor for your favourite cocktail and pour off just enough to leave room to add the other ingredients needed for it," suggests an excerpt from Freezer Cocktails: 75 cocktails that are ready when you are.

"Cap the bottle, give it a good shake, then store it in the freezer. Ready for a drink? Just pour," writes the author JM Hirsch, editorial director of Christopher Kimball's cooking school, Milk Street, in Boston, USA.

"Sure, it's not that difficult to make a cocktail the old-fashioned way: Measure out a few shots of liquor, toss in some bitters and ice, give it all a shake or stir, then strain it into a glass.

"But there are any number of reasons to keep batched bottles of your favourite cocktails on hand," suggests Hirsch. "Entertaining is among the most compelling. So is ease. Surely, I'm not alone in having plenty of nights when even a little effort feels like too much."

To put you on the front foot, he says there is a "bit of science involved".

Essentially, you need to make sure the ingredients in the bottle don't actually freeze. "I've done the trial and error for you - sorting out which ingredients can freeze and which can't; scaling up classic recipes so they still taste balanced.

"Accounting for the dilution you'd normally get when shaking and stirring with ice; determining the best way to serve each; and offering single-serve cocktail ideas for using up the extra liquor you pour off."