Got Lots Of Leftovers This Thanksgiving? Turn 'Em Into A Cocktail

Harrison Ginsberg, the bar manager of Crown Shy restaurant who was recently named the winner of Pernod Ricard USA and Rethink Food’s Make It Twice food waste cocktail competition, has some great tips for how to use scraps to infuse spirits. While the cocktail that won Ginsberg the gold (a second-wash hazelnut syrup, pink lady apple brine, and spent latte milk along with the whiskey) might be a little ambitious for the average home chef, we snagged his tips for some more simple drinks that can be made from some of the most common Thanksgiving leftovers. Here, Ginsberg describes three recipes good enough to outshine the turkey:

Cranberries are nice and tart and taste citrusy, and if I have cranberry sauce it's usually doctored up with some orange and cinnamon. You take a little bit of that and mix it with some sort of American rich whiskey like rye and make a variation of the classic old fashioned.

Any kind of citrus peels or husks are always good. If you squeeze a lemon or orange for your turkey or side, instead of throwing away the core, just simmer it with some water to extract a really great citrus flavor. Then add some sugar to it to make a syrup that you can use to make any sort of classic cocktail variation, such as a Collins (Brandy with a little lemon juice topped with soda). More and more at home, I use what some people would refer to as a "citrus stalk" rather than squeezing a whole lemon in my drink.

You can do that technique with any sort of brown butter; brown butter infused whiskey is delicious. It's a really decadent spirit you can almost sip by itself. You get this beautiful flavor of something you might have otherwise just gotten rid of.