Bar Chef Dale DeGroff
Created at Brennan’s Restaurant in New Orleans in the 1920s

Note: Special equipment exists that's designed to withstand the flaming brandy for preparing Café Brulot -- a Sheffield Silver-lined copper bowl mounted above a circular copper tray and a specially-designed long-handled ladle also of Sheffield Silver. If you don't have the equipment, a chafing dish and a metal ladle can substitute.

Ingredients:

1 cup VS cognac brandy
4 oz. orange curacao
1 1/2 oz. overproof rum
2 pieces cinnamon stick (broken)
2 whole orange peels cut in one piece with very little pith. Spiral cut peels.
12 cloves
6 tsp. granulated sugar
1 liter strong French roast drip coffee, flavored with chicory if available

Instructions:

1. Mix brandy, curacao, half of cloves, one orange peel and sugar in a bowl.
   
2. Break up the cinnamon sticks and drop them in. Let stand for several hours prior to serving.
   
3. Prepare the second spiral-cut orange peel by studding it with the remaining cloves.
   
4. At serving time, pour the prepared mixture into the Café Brulot bowl or the chafing dish.
   
5. Prepare the coffee and keep it hot.
   
6. Thread one end of the clove-studded orange peel through the tines of a serving fork and set it aside for a moment.
   
7. If you are using a chafing dish, light the fuel underneath the bowl to warm the mixture. If you are using the special Brulot apparatus, pour the overproof rum in the tray below the bowl and light it.

   Caution: Use no more rum than called for and keep the bottle of overproof rum in another area--it is extremely flammable.

8. When the mixture in the bowl warms up, ladle up a small amount and expose it to the flame in the tray and use it to ignite the rest of the brandy mixture in the bowl.
   
9. Pick up the fork with the orange peel and position it over the center of the bowl with the spiral going down into the mixture. Using the ladle, slowly pour the flaming brandy mixture over the top of the orange peel. The oil in the orange peel will provide a nice little light show for your guests.
   
10. Do this a couple times and then pour the coffee slowly into the bowl until the fire is extinguished and serve in demitasse cups. If the flame is difficult to extinguish, place a large dinner plate over the bowl briefly. Have extra sweetener on hand for those who require it.

Next: Easy Hot Toddy