Cowboy Cocktail, Salty Dog with Saddle Leather

This Cowboy Cocktail is a unique version of a Salty Dog cocktail using carbonated grapefruit juice and beef jerky for garnish. Your new favorite Western Themed Cocktail has arrived.

What Is A Salty Dog Cocktail?

While I was sure the drink has nothing to do with a dog, or a dog that been salted, my curiosity sent me to Google to research how the salty dog became a salty dog.

Wikipedia tells us that a salty dog is a cocktail of gin or vodka and grapefruit juice served in a highball glass with a salted rim.

The salt is the only difference between a Salty Dog and a Greyhound. A recipe for a similar cocktail with the name “Greyhound” appears in Harper’s magazine in 1945. “The cocktails were made of vodka, sugar, and canned grapefruit juice — a greyhound. This cocktail was served at a popular restaurant chain that was located at Greyhound bus terminals, called ‘Post House’.”

I recently dug out my cookbook “Shinin’ Times at The Fort” to browse for some western cuisine inspiration. As I was turning the pages , I really wasn’t looking cowboy cocktails, but this recipe called Salty Dog with Saddle Leather caught my attention.

I think it’s adorable that the saddle leather is a stick of buffalo jerky that garnishes the cocktail.

The recipe in the book is simple, with canned grapefruit juice and vodka, and salt for the rim of the glass.

However, a while back I picked up some carbonated grapefruit juice that I had yet to try. I also had some salmon colored Hawaiian Premium Red Sea Salt, in the pantry that I thought would be a nice compliment for that salty rim.

The result? Delicious, sparkling fresh and fabulous. I love the true to grapefruit flavor of the Bai Bubbles product, and of course those bubbles make the cocktail a fizzy success. The Hawaiian sea salt was  perfect compliment and the leather a unique conversation piece.

Cowboy Cocktail, Salty Dog Cocktail with Saddle Leather

I hope you give this cowboy cocktail recipe a try. It’s a fun and refreshing treat for a back yard BBQ where a Western Themed dinner is on the menu.

And if you do make this, please come back and give the recipe a star rating. And leave a comment about your experience with the recipe.

I hope you give this Western themed Salty Dog recipe a try, and if you do, please come back and give the recipe a star rating, and leave a comment about your experience with the drink.

And if you have a favorite unique salty dog recipe, let me know, I’d love to give it a try.

More Cocktail Recipes

• Rio Grande Paloma Recipe This pink grapefruit juice cocktail is thirst quenching, light, fruity and fizzy. One of the smoothest tequila cocktails you can mix.
• Blood Orange Margarita Beautifully orange in color this is a great football cocktail recipe for any team that sports the color orange. Cointreau makes this one special drink.
• Pumpkin Pie Martini A perfect Fall-themed cocktail for Thanksgiving. Absolutely delicious and creamy. 

And if you’re looking to host a cocktail party, don’t miss my Appetizer and Beverages category, you’ll find lots of cocktail party recipe ideas. Including one of the most popular beverage on my site for Micheladas, a Mexican Beer Cocktail.

The Fort Restaurant is a Denver landmark full of western culture, history, charm and western food. Do Rattlesnake, Quail Eggs Wrapped in Buffalo Sausage, Rocky Mountain Oysters and Bone Marrow get your attention?

For as long as I’ve lived here, (30 years) it’s been “the place” to take out-of-town guests for a taste of the Wild West. With its unique menu items and servers dressed like Kit Carson, The Fort reflects the years when trappers, settlers and Army explorers first traveled the Santa Fe Trail to our region.

Salty Dog Cocktail with Beef Jerky Saddle Leather … It’s what’s for a Country Western Themed Cocktail