There’s a fine art to cobbled-together cocktails – here are a few hacks.

Making cocktails requires a bit of dosh. Between the spirits, liqueurs and botanicals, it can seriously add up (cozzie livs and all). But fear not, there’s a light (and cocktail) at the end of the tunnel – or at least at the back of the pantry. That’s right, those bits and bobs floating around behind your olive oils can be used for something! Let us introduce you to the fine art of pantry cocktails. Drinks made from canned fruits and veg, soy sauce, Vegemite, red wine vinegar and jams. Thrifty little numbers that won’t break the bank. Can we get an “Oooh yeah”?

1. Jams, marmalades and preserves

Don’t have any liqueurs and really can’t be stuffed to go and buy some? Well, consider it a bad day to be a jar of jam because they're about to get shook. Jam cocktails are super-easy, and by the looks of TikTok, all the rage, too. Just ask our friend Aurelia St Clair after the success of their Jam Gin Fizz. The joy of the jam cocktail is just how easy it is to incorporate into your drinks. Think of it as a chunky liqueur or flavoured syrup, but super-easy to break up with some vigorous shaking (thank goodness). One of the best things about using your forgotten jams and condiments is there are already tonnes of cocktails out there for you to make. For example, the Breakfast Martini made by legend Salvatore Calabrese using gin, triple sec, fresh lemon juice and marmalade. It lives on the same plane as the Gin Sour, but nixes the sugar syrup in favour of a barspoon of marmalade, adds 15mL of triple sec and decreases the amount of lemon juice to 15mL. Other jammy cocktails include a twist on the OG Clover Club, using raspberry jam (or any berry jam, really) instead of syrup and opting for dry vermouth. You could even melt down that leftover quince paste and do a fun little quincey twist on a Tom Collins.

2. Honey

No-brainer here, folks. If you’ve got honey in your pantry, you’ve struck yellow gold. Why? Well, it’s sugar, innit? And basically, every cocktail recipe requires an element of sugar. The good thing about honey, though, is that it’s flavours are slightly more complex than your average simple syrup. It works an absolute treat in drinks like the Old Fashioned and other whisk(e)y and deeper-flavoured spirit cocktails. But before you go squirting honey into your cocktail, it’s best to make a simple syrup from it first. Do this by adding three parts honey to one part boiling water. Once that’s a good consistency, let it cool and then you can chuck it into anything. It works in a plethora of rum, Cognac and whiskey cocktails. The sky’s the limit!

3. Spreads

If you’ve got a breakfast spread, you’ve got a cocktail (ingredient). We will bypass the Nutella in a Toblerone (blenders are great, huh?) because that’s pretty intuitive, and instead slide onto Vegemite and nut spreads. Now, peanut butter is a wondrous thing. It’s the king of spreadable nuts. In saying that, it is tricky to use. This is where good old fat-washing comes in handy – similar to what we’ve discussed in our Bacon-Washed Old Fashioned. Essentially, grab your peanut butter of choice and spread a thin layer at the bottom of a baking tray (with a lip), pour in your preferred bourbon, cover and rest overnight at room temp. Put the bourbon through a coffee filter and back into the bottle, discard the peanut butter, and hey presto! You’ve got a peanut butter fat-washed spirit, ready for a bougie Old Fashioned.

No Australian pantry is complete without a good old jug of Vegemite (yes, jug). Vegemite is a wizard ingredient because it can get a good hit of salt and umami into your cocktail. Many a folk before us have slugged it into a Bloody Mary for a nice salty, rounded kick, but if you want to be really adventurous, make a syrup with it – take 100mL agave syrup, 100mL boiling water and dissolve a teaspoon of Vegemite in it. Once it has cooled down, you can use it in anything, but we like it in an Espresso Martini for a bit of salty intrigue.

4. Vinegar and sauces

If your pantry is anything like ours, it’s stockpiled with vinegar and underused sauces. Why do we have so much red wine vinegar? Who knows, it’s one of life’s great mysteries. The good news is you can use it in your cocktails. Now, we’re not saying to use an excess amount of it because, well… vinegar. So, what we suggest is mixing it in a cocktail that is already quite sweet to give the drink a bit more depth. Things like a Swizzle – where there’s a good hit of sugar, citrus and ice. Just pour in around 20mL red wine vinegar (or to taste) to give that fruity cocktail a touch more complexity. Or chuck it in a frothy egg-whitey Sour for a bit of interest – just make sure you’re tasting the cocktail as you go to check that the sugar and citrus are working to balance the vinegar.

Right, onto the sauces. Bloody Marys, Micheladas and the like – those thick tomatoey drinks can take a lot of sauce. Good versions always have a balance of salt, spice, sugar and citrus. Instead of using Worcestershire Sauce (also a pantry fave), thin down a touch of oyster sauce and stir it through your tomato juice mix. The same goes for fish sauce, soy sauce and ponzu. You could even trial noodle seasoning and stock cubes in the mix as well. Have a play – we reckon some Thai chilli paste, lime, simple syrup, noodle seasoning (Maggi) and a lager like Singha is a great shout for a fancy Michelada.

Hot sauces can also be chucked into your tomato drinks. Experiment with all manner of chilli, even gochujang works a treat. Or if you’ve got a nice, crunchy, green jalapeño hot sauce, throw it into your Margarita for a spicy kick. Got miso lying around? Try our So-Miso recipe – it’s ridiculously good.

5. Canned stuff

Speaking of Bloody Marys, if you’ve got a big old can of tomatoes in the back of your pantry, it’s Bloody Mary time. They’re like the kitchen sink of drinks – in a good way. If you don’t have tomato juice but do have a bunch of canned tomatoes, whizz them up in a blender with water and maybe a stalk of celery. If it’s too thick for your liking, give it strain through a sieve, or if you want it real thin, use a cheesecloth. Otherwise, bang it up in a shaker with some wasabi or horseradish, hot sauce, Worcestershire Sauce, salt, pepper, vodka (or whatever base spirit you have) and maybe even some Old Bay seasoning (another pantry OG), and you’ve got yourself a fine-looking Mary (pimp it up with our suggestions above).

Brine! Olive brine, in particular, is your best friend, specifically if it's good quality. The good stuff always has a li’l MSG in it, which makes it perfect for an absolutely filthy Martini. No vermouth? No problem. If you've got plenty of brine and either vodka or gin, then you’ve got yourself a bone-dry Martini. Just use more brine than you would normally and make sure you chill the mix way, way down – getting a good lick of dilution is essential.

If you’ve got canned chickpeas hiding away somewhere, you’ve got aquafaba – the gooey liquid you normally pour down the sink. Strain the chickpeas and keep the juice because it acts as a frothing agent and works the same way as egg whites. So, things like a Whiskey Sour, White Lady or anything with egg white holds up just as well with aquafaba. Best of all? It’s vegan.

6. Condensed milk and coconut milk

We don’t know too many people out there stockpiling condensed milk, but if you’re someone who does – we love that for you – now you can make these cocktails. Condensed milk is great for cocktails because it's sweet and fatty, but also has a fab caramel flavour that works well with your caramel-ish liquors like rum and bourbon. The Batida (“milkshake” in Portuguese) is a family of cachaca drinks that uses condensed milk. Cachaca is a bit of a niche spirit here in Australia, so if you don’t have it, opt for a white or lighter-styled rum. The OG Batida is a mix of 50mL Cachaca (or rum), 60mL coconut water, 30mL condensed milk and 8mL lime juice shaken and served over ice. But you can flavour it any way you want. Chuck in some mango puree and blend with some frozen ice, or make it even creamier with coconut milk instead of coconut water, blended with ice. Other suggestions could be a hit of cinnamon or some coffee for a Vietnamese coffee twist, but really, flavour it anyhow and way you see fit. As for coconut milk? You best believe we’re sticking it in a White Russian, but it’s best enjoyed in your Tiki-style cocktails.

7. Sugar

Above all else, there is sugar. It’s that linchpin ingredient that ties the room together. As we mentioned, sugar is a number-one in most cocktails, so get familiar with making simple syrups at home. We make them all the time – take our Cherry Christmas Spritz or Crimes of Passion cocktails, for example. And you can make a simple syrup out of almost anything. Coffee, soy sauce, miso, celery, berries, milo, maple syrup, tea, corn… you name it. It's as simple as boiling water, adding sugar, chucking in your flavouring ingredient, heating it up, and then draining it. For gooey things (like we suggested above for honey), try a three-part honey to one-part water mix, while for the heftier things, it might just be a little bit of trial and error and sampling to nail the balance.