Looking for the ultimate frozen Caesar cocktail? Chris Nuttall-Smith’s Gin Caesar Slushies transform Canada’s iconic cocktail into a refreshing frozen drink made with homemade Caesar mix, gin, Clamato and jalapeño brine. They’re the perfect make-ahead cocktail for camping trips, cottage weekends and summer entertaining.

Renowned Canadian restaurant critic and food writer Chris Nuttall-Smith describes these Gin Caesar Slushies as “the Bloody Mary’s brash northern cousin.” An avid camper and outdoorsman, Nuttall-Smith’s bestselling cookbook, Cook It Wild: Sensational Prep-Ahead Meals for Camping, Cabins, and the Great Outdoors, provides instructions for preparing each recipe at home in advance as much as possible so it can be quickly assembled fireside. In this case, you make the Caesar mix and cocktails from scratch before freezing them – all you need to do is remove them from the cooler and let them defrost enough to drink.

“They’re spicy, savoury and ridiculously refreshing, with a welcome aromatic top note from the gin. Thanks to all their vegetable content, they’re even almost healthful, too, brilliant served with breakfast in the wild,” writes Nuttall-Smith. You can drink them at home, too – we won’t tell.

A Caesar cocktail sitting on a rock outdoors

Gin Caesar Slushies

These Gin Caesar Slushies transform Canada's iconic Caesar into a refreshing frozen cocktail. Made with homemade Caesar mix, gin, Clamato and jalapeño brine.

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Ingredients

Caesar Mix

1 cup water see note #1
20 oz Clamato juice see note #2
8 oz gin
4 oz jalapeño brine from a jar of pickled jalapeños
4 tsp fresh lemon juice
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
8 dashes Tabasco
1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
¼ tsp kosher salt

Cocktail

Caesar Mix partially thawed (see note #3)
celery sticks, olives, pickled beans lemon wedges and other garnishes for serving

Instructions

Caesar Mix

In a 1.5-litre soda bottle, combine the water, Clamato, gin, jalapeño brine, lemon juice, Worcestershire, Tabasco, pepper and salt. Shake well and freeze for 24 hours.

Cocktail

Shake the slushy Caesar mix well to break up its ice, pour into all glasses (or crappy camping mugs) and garnish as desired. Serve immediately.

Notes

These are meant to be imbibed as slushies; if you’d rather drink them on ice, omit the water from the recipe.
If you’d like a vegan version, or you’re really not into seafood in your cocktails (the drink’s base mixer is Clamato juice) turn this into a Red Snapper (that’s a Bloody Mary but made with gin) by swapping the Clamato for straight tomato juice.
Cocktails keep for 5 days, after thawing, kept cold, or 2 weeks, frozen.

Keyword Caesar cocktail, homemade caesar mix

Excerpted from Cook It Wild by Chris Nuttall-Smith. Copyright © 2023 Chris Nuttall-Smith. Photography by Maya Visnyei and illustrations by Claire McCracken. Published by Penguin, an imprint of Penguin Canada, a division of Penguin Random House Canada Limited. Reproduced by arrangement with the Publisher. All rights reserved.