Rick “Beabs” Beaber recently flew to Connecticut to help his buddy with a benefit golf outing for the Candlewood Lake Marine Patrol. Understand that Beabs does not play golf. He’s not even sure he ever wants to play golf. Beabs is a fishing, hunting kind of guy.

But he does like to be with his buddies who play the game, and each year, they count on him to mix up his secret batch of Bloody Marys to keep things pepped up on the course. His recipe was obtained under clandestine circumstances, I’m told, from a bartender at the Metro’s Ski Inn in Cable, Wisc., just outside the Telemark Golf Course.

Here bartender Juanita Hosch makes what is arguable the best Bloody in the area, adding A-1 sauce and garnishing with homemade spiced pickles. Sworn to secrecy, Beabs, true to his word, has never divulged the recipe. But under very little duress, Hosch shared the ingredients.

Beabs’ Bloody has been one of the highlights of this yearly outing. And up until this year when the proverbial manure hit the fan, Beabs has been able to set up camp on one of the tees, happily dispensing his beverage to golfers as they went through. He enjoyed it; everyone enjoyed it. It was, well, a tradition.

This year, though, the Bloody was served only at registration because he didn’t have the required liquor license. Still his two large containers full of Bloodies went fast. After all, it’s a great drink. Tradition.

Funny thing about Bloody Marys is that everyone who loves them claims to have the best recipe. Some use horseradish, some don’t. Some use tomato juice, some V-8 juice, some Clamato juice. Garnishes run the gamut from celery and olives to pickled asparagus and even shrimp.

Fallen Oak Golf Club in the gaming capital of Biloxi, Miss., jazzes up its Bloodies with peppers marinated in vodka, while Wisconsin is known for using spicy pickles.

Forest Floor Foods (www.pickledveggies.com) makes a good living selling its pickled line of products, including fresh packed crunchy pickle spears bathed in garlic and jalapeño brine.

You may want to experiment to come up with your own signature Bloody Mary. If this doesn’t turn you on, pick one of these.

BEABS’ BLOODY
The Beabs recipe obtained from Metro’s Ski Inn in Cable, Wisc.

Mix:
1/8 cup Worchester Sauce
1 tsp. horseradish
1 tblsp. A-1 sauce
Pinch celery salt
3 splashes Tabasco sauce

Pour over ice in glass, add regular tomato juice and garnish with olives, lime and lemon wedges and spiced pickles.

Spiced pickles:
Pour brine out of 1 quart jar of crunchy whole Kosher dill pickles and cut into long chunky wedges. Boil 1 cup water, 1/2 cup sugar and 1/3 cup white vinegar. Cool. Add a tablespoon of creamed horseradish and mix. Pour mixture into jar of pickles and let marinate overnight. Turn over occasionally to distribute brine evenly.

BEABS’ BLOODY, PART II
This year Rick Beaber arrived in Connecticut without the original recipe and needed to wing it through much trial and error. His altered version was actually quite tasty.

Mix:
Equal parts Mr. and Mrs. T’s Bold and Spicy Bloody Mary mix and Spicy V-8 juice.

Add to taste celery salt, Tabasco sauce, Worchester Sauce, salt and pepper and fresh-squeezed lime juice. Add vodka and garnish with spiced pickles as prepare above.

IDAHO CLASSIC
1 (46 oz.) bottle tomato juice
1 1/2 tblsp. celery salt
1 1/2 tsp. ground black pepper
3 tblsp. Worcestershire sauce
1 1/2 tsp. hot pepper sauce (i.e. Tabasco)

Combine tomato juice, celery salt, pepper, Worcestershire sauce, and hot pepper sauce. Secure the lid and shake, or stir to mix until well blended. Store in the refrigerator for up to one week. When ready to serve, add vodka and pour into a glass over ice.

CLUB CAR BLOODY MARY
Served at the bottom of Mary Jane ski run in Colorado.

5 oz. Stolichnaya vodka
16 oz. good quality tomato juice (note: tomato juice purchased in a glass container tastes best)
4 dashes celery salt
1 tblsp.. Worcestershire sauce
1/2 tsp. horseradish
Couple splashes of pepperoncini juice
Couple dashes of Tabasco sauce
Pepper

Serve in a tall tall glass of ice cubes and garnish with a whole stalk of celery, olives, pepperoncini and a lime slice.

Note: Pepperoncini, also known as Tuscan peppers, sweet Italian peppers, and golden Greek peppers, are mild and sweet with a slight heat to them. They are commonly pickled and sold in jars.

History of the Bloody Mary
The drink dates back to the 1920s when Fernand Petiot, an American bartender at Harry’s New York Bar in Paris, named his creation of tomato juice and vodka “Bloody Mary” at the suggestion of a customer who said it reminded him of the Bucket of Blood Club in Chicago and a girl he knew there named Mary.

When Petiot brought his recipe to King Cole Bar at the St. Regis Hotel in New York City, he enhanced it adding cayenne pepper, black pepper, Worcestershire sauce, lemon and Tabasco.