Pancho’s Original Margarita Recipe

Fill a cocktail shaker or lidded jar with cracked ice. Squeeze the juice from the lime into the container and then rub the lime half around the rim of an 8-ounce glass.
Place a thin layer of salt on a saucer and dip the lime-rubbed glass into the salt. Shake off excess salt to leave only a light sprinkling on the rim of the glass.
Pour the tequila and Cointreau into the container with the ice and lime juice and shake to blend. Strain the margarita into the prepared glass and serve.
Regional Variations: The typical margarita proportions are 3 parts tequila to 1 part lime juice and 1 to 2 parts orange-flavored liqueur, usually Cointreau or Triple Sec. From that starting point, the troops depart in all directions. Some people alter the ratios in favor of the tequila or lime juice, some like it frozen or “on the rocks” instead of “up,” and some have a strong preference for either the “pure” taste of silver tequila or the “rich” body of the gold variety. Cookbook author Jane Butel, founder of the Albuquerque cooking school that bears her name, adds part of an egg white for a little froth. The most unusual variations change the liqueur, substituting Curacao perhaps to make a blue margarita, or they combine another fruit flavor, from cranberry to prickly pear, with the Cointreau or Triple Sec.