Author: John Fladd

• 1½ ounces bourbon
• 1 ounce apple cider
• 1 ounce fresh squeezed lemon juice
• ½ ounce simple syrup
• 1 egg white

Combine all the ingredients in a cocktail shaker without ice, then shake for 30 seconds or so. After the first few seconds you might have to break the seal on your shaker — for some reason I don’t entirely understand, pressure will build up after the first few shakes, and the top will want to pop off. It’s better to do it yourself in a controlled manner than to have it pop off messily on its own, sending droplets of egg whites into unseen corners of your kitchen that will become mysterious sticky places a week from now when you’ve forgotten about this whole incident.

I have two theories for the unexpected build-up of pressure in your cocktail shaker:

(1) Do you remember making a baking soda and vinegar volcano in fifth grade? The alkaline baking soda mixed with the acidic vinegar and the mix released a bunch of carbon dioxide, along with foam that poured out of the top of your volcano. Even though your teacher knew what to expect, it always took her by surprise somehow, and she would do a nervous backward shuffle, much like she would have if she had seen a mouse.

Lemon juice is surprisingly acidic. It has a pH of between 2 and 3, the same as most vinegars. While not as acidic as the lemon juice, apple cider is also acidic, with a pH of 3.2 to 4.7, about the same as tomato juice. Egg whites are alkaline, with a pH anywhere from 7.6 to 9.7, depending on how fresh your egg is. That puts them in the same neighborhood alkalinitily-speaking, as baking soda, which averages between 8 and 9.

Keeping in mind that I’m about as much a biochemist as I am an Olympic water polo player, my theory is that the interaction between these acids and bases probably involves the release of some degree of carbon dioxide.

(2) Unless — and this is my second theory — there is some sort of emotional upheaval going on in the cocktail shaker. It is the Holidays, after all, and we all know the kind of simmering emotional pressure that can present itself this time of year.

What if — and remember that this is just a theory — the two juices, the cider and the lemon juice, are the children of the family. Lemon juice has brought her new boyfriend, Edgar White, home with her to meet the family, not knowing that he once had a brief but torrid love affair with the Cider Sister. Mom, the syrup, tries to keep a lid on things (literally, in this case), and the dad, Ken Tucky-Bourbon, sits around in confusion as the emotional pressure builds surprisingly quickly.

Then, as often happens around the Holidays, boom.

At any rate, being aware of the likelihood of pressure build-up in your shaker, dry-shake the ingredients. (That’s what bartenders call shaking without ice.) If you’ve ever made a cocktail with egg whites before, and added them directly on top of ice, you’ll understand what a fraught situation that can be.

After shaking the ingredients thoroughly, add several ice cubes to the shaker and shake it again. Now that everything has mixed together, the ice will serve to chill the cocktail and dilute it slightly.

Strain your foamy cocktail into a stemmed glass, so that you can drink it in peaceful frigidity, without your hands warming it up.

Given that there is a fairly modest amount of bourbon in this drink, it makes its presence known. The foam from the egg white, however, means that as you sip it, some of the cocktail will hit your palate in the form of a fine mist, and the flavor compounds from the fruit will announce themselves.

It is very good, with very little emotional trauma.

Featured Photo: Bourbon-Cider Sour. Photo by John Fladd.

Where to find farmers markets in colder months

One of the great joys of summer is shopping for fresh local food at farmers markets and visiting the craftspeople and small business owners who meet their customers there. Most farmers markets shut down for the year in the fall, but there are four area markets that offer produce after the weather gets cold.

• Canterbury Farmers Market (canterburyfarmersmarket.com) While it doesn’t stay open throughout the winter, the Canterbury Farmers Market will hold one more indoor market Saturday, Dec. 7, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the Canterbury Elementary School gym (15 Baptist Road, Canterbury, just up the hill from the center of town).

• Milford Indoor Farmers Market (milfordnhfarmersmarket.com) The Milford Farmers Market will be open every other Saturday through the winter on the second floor of the Milford Town Hall Auditorium (1 Union Square, Milford), from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. More than 20 vendors will sell seasonal vegetables and fruit; meats, poultry (chicken), fresh cut fish, cheese, eggs, soups, prepackaged frozen dinners, loose-leaf teas and gourmet sugars, baked goods, crafts and more.

Adrienne Colsia is the manager of the Indoor Market. She said that the mission of the Winter Market is much the same as that of Milford’s Summer Market.

“Our goal is really to provide locally grown and made products throughout the year,” she said. “Obviously in the winter we’re unable to do so because there’s not a whole lot of produce, though we do have an organic farmer who brings carrots and lettuce and things like that. We have some really loyal customers and we’re always getting new faces in. We have a wide variety of good items and good products. We have gifts for the holidays and different celebrations. We have meats. We have seasonal fruits and veggies. It’s a wide variety. Nobody’s going to walk in there and say, ‘Oh, there’s nothing here.’ There’s a lot there.”

• Salem Farmers Market (salemnhfarmersmarket.org) The Salem Farmers Market is open every Saturday, all year. From November through April it takes place at LaBelle Winery’s Derry location (14 Route 111, Derry, 672-9898, labellewinery.com/labelle-winery-derry) from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. The market offers meat, fish, dairy, specialty food items and crafts, and services such as knife-sharpening.

Bill Woodman is the owner of Woodman’s Artisan Bakery (4 Sunapee St., Nashua, 718-1694, woodmansartisanbakery.com). He sells European-style breads and pastries at the Salem Market.

“We have our baguettes, and our focaccias,” he said. “We do a few different varieties of sourdoughs and we have a couple nice German, heavy German ryes.”

Woodman credits the Salem Market with helping get his business off the ground.

“It’s a really good market to go to and to help support. It’s supporting a lot of local people, obviously, and a lot of local small businesses.” He likes the feeling of community at the Market. “There are customers,” he said, “loyal customers, who follow us around from season to season, which is great. For a lot of the vendors, we’ve been there for a while, we all know each other fairly well for working together at a farmer’s market.”

• Downtown Concord Winter Farmers Market (downtownconcordwinterfarmersmarket.com) The Farmers Market in Concord will be open all winter, every Saturday, between 9 a.m. and noon, through April, at 7 Eagle Square. Venders supply a wide selection of fresh produce, meat, dairy, cheese, baked goods, treats, soap, and crafts, from local farmers and craftsmen. There is live music each week. Interesting goods include locally distilled spirits, micro-greens, mushrooms, ostrich eggs and meat.

News from the local food scene

• Holiday wine tasting: WineNot Boutique (25 Main St., Nashua, 204-5569, winenotboutique.com) will host a Holiday Wine Tasting Party, Thursday, Dec.5, from 4 to 7:30 p.m. featuring 15 wines and light appetizers. Tickets are $20.

• Wine and glitter: Enjoy an evening of Tipsy Tree Making on Thursday, Dec. 5, from 5 to 7 p.m. at Barrel and Baskit (377 Main St., Hopkinton, 746-1375, barrelandbaskit.com). Decorate your own boxwood tree while enjoying wine picks and an appetizer bar. Tickets are $85.

• Strings and spirits: Canterbury Shaker Village (288 Shaker Road, Canterbury, 783-9511, shakers.org) invites you to a Merry, Merry Canterbury Concert + Cocktails, Saturday, Dec. 7, from 4 to 7 p.m., featuring a concert by the Symphony New Hampshire String Quartet in the Dwelling House Chapel. A festive reception will follow, with appetizers and drinks in the Hubbard Gallery. Tickets are $35 per person.

• Poinsettias and pinot noir: December’s wine class theme at Wine on Main (9 N. Main St., Concord, 897-5828, wineonmainnh.com) will be Pairing Wine with Holiday Food. There will be five new wines and four new pairings. Each ticket includes a welcome sparkling wine followed by four bites paired with a carefully chosen complementary wine. These pairings will illustrate some of the techniques used to artfully pair food and wine. The wines featured will also be great choices for the holiday table. There will be classes Tuesday, Dec. 10, and Wednesday, Dec.11, from 6:30 to 8 p.m. Tickets are $40.

• Winter Wine Spectacular returns: Tickets are on sale now for the New England Winter Wine Spectacular on Thursday, Jan. 23, from 6 to 8:30 p.m. at the DoubleTree By Hilton Manchester Downtown (700 Elm St. in Manchester). Early bird tickets for this event, which raises funds for New Hampshire Food Bank and features more than 1,700 wines, cost $65 for general admission, $85 for admission with early entry (at 5 p.m.) and $125 for access to the Bellman’s Cellar Select Room at 5 p.m. (as well as early admission to the main tasting room). Prices go up after Dec. 15. See nhwineweek.com.