Here are some tips for making the perfect authentic Old Fashioned Whiskey Cocktail:
Sir Kingsley Amis, CBE (1922–1995), was many things during his life: the writer of more than twenty books, including the James Bond novel Colonel Sun (written under the pseudonym Robert Markham); a teacher; and an alcoholic beverage expert. Amis believed that “you really have to use bourbon” when making the Old Fashioned.1 Olivier Said and James Mellgren concur, including the Old Fashioned in a short list of cocktails that use bourbon as the base spirit.2 Sheree Bykofsky and Megan Buckley, authors of Sexy City Cocktails, point out that since the whiskey is in the “spotlight,” you will want to use “the best bourbon you can find.”3 Amis believed that the Old Fashioned could not be mass-produced successfully, so each drink should be mixed individually.4 He used the fruit as a garnish and did not muddle.
1 level teaspoon castor sugar
Hot water—just enough to dissolve the sugar completely
3 dashes Angostura bitters
1 hefty squeeze fresh orange juice
1 teaspoon maraschino cherry juice
1 huge slug (about 4 fluid ounces) bourbon whiskey
3 ice cubes
1 orange slice
1 maraschino cherry
Put the dissolved sugar in a glass; add the bitters, orange and cherry juices, and whiskey; stir furiously. Add the ice cubes and stir again. Push the orange slice down alongside the ice, drop in the cherry, and serve. Supply drinking straws, if it’s that sort of party.
Williams-Sonoma’s The Bar Guide recounts the story of the Old Fashioned Whiskey Cocktail’s creation at the Pendennis Club in the late 1880s.5 It concedes that the first Old Fashioned was most likely made with bourbon but states that blended Canadian whisky is now the ingredient of choice. This recipe suggests muddling the fruit.
3 dashes Angostura bitters
1 orange slice
1 lemon wedge
1 maraschino cherry
1 sugar cube
Ice cubes
2½ fluid ounces (75 mL) blended Canadian whisky
Put the bitters, orange slice, lemon wedge, maraschino cherry, and sugar cube in an Old Fashioned glass and muddle well. Fill the glass with ice cubes. Add the whisky. Stir well.
The use of Irish Whiskey for an Old Fashioned is outlined in Williams-Sonoma’s The Bar Guide.6 I have always referred to Irish whiskey as a “gateway” whiskey for my students who prefer vodka, because of its approachably smooth flavor. The fruit is muddled in this recipe.
3 dashes Angostura bitters
1 orange slice
1 lemon wedge
1 maraschino cherry
1 sugar cube
Ice cubes
2½ fluid ounces (75 mL) Irish whiskey
Put the bitters, orange slice, lemon wedge, maraschino cherry, and sugar cube in an Old Fashioned glass and muddle well. Fill the glass with ice cubes. Add the whiskey. Stir well.
I found this recipe in The Savoy Food and Drink Book, featuring an introduction by Kingsley Amis.7 Sir Kingsley declared that the rye Old Fashioned was “not too bad.”8 This recipe features the fruit as a garnish (no muddling) and adds a lemon peel twist to the mix.
1 lump, or 1 teaspoon, sugar
2 dashes Angostura bitters
2 fluid ounces rye whiskey
1 ice cube
1 lemon peel twist
1 orange slice
1 maraschino cherry
Crush the sugar and bitters together in a medium-sized glass. Add the whiskey and the ice cube, and decorate with the lemon peel, orange slice, and maraschino cherry. This cocktail can also be made with other spirits.
The Scotch Old Fashioned was described by Sir Kingsley Amis as “not worth while,”9 but New Orleans restaurant legend Ella Brennan disagrees; according to Ti Martin and Lally Brennan, the Scotch Old Fashioned is her drink of choice.10 This recipe appears in David Renton’s Dorchester Cocktail Book, where it leads the chapter titled “Pre-Dinner Cocktails.”11 Renton’s book has many useful recipes, including classic cocktails, original creations, and a section on canapés. He suggests using the fruit as a garnish only—no muddling. It is important to note that Renton uses the word measure to express the amount of whisky used. He explains that because different people like different-sized drinks, you can choose any measuring cup or glass and use the same amount each time in relation to the other ingredients.12 Japanese whiskey and Indian whiskey can be substituted, with similar results.
3 dashes Angostura bitters
1 lump sugar
Water
Ice cubes
1 measure Scotch whisky
1 orange slice
1 maraschino cherry
Pour the bitters onto the sugar in an Old Fashioned glass, dissolve with a little water, add ice, and pour the whisky. Decorate with the orange slice and cherry.
Jack Daniel’s is one of three companies making Tennessee whiskey, but it is the only one owned by Louisville-based Brown-Forman. This is the company’s standard recipe, featured in both Jack Daniel’s Cookbook: The Spirit of Tennessee and Jack Daniel’s Old Time Barbecue Cookbook.13
Pinch sugar, dissolved in ½ teaspoon water
2 drops bitters
1 orange slice, halved
1 maraschino cherry
Jack Daniel’s whiskey
Combine the first four ingredients in an Old Fashioned glass. Top with Jack Daniel’s whiskey to taste.
Even though Lafcadio Hearn doesn’t call this an Old Fashioned Whiskey Cocktail, there is a striking resemblance to other early recipes. This drink is from Hearn’s La Cuisine Creole, published in 1885:
Two dashes of Boker’s, Angostura or Peychaud bitters—either will make a fine cocktail. One lump of sugar, one-piece of lemon peel, one tablespoon of water, one wineglassful of liquor, etc., with plenty of ice. Stir well and strain into a cocktail glass.14
Here is another cocktail from Hearn:
One lump of sugar; two dashes of Boker’s bitters or Angostura bitters; two tablespoonfuls of Belfast ginger ale; one wineglassful of whiskey or brandy; one lemon peel; plenty of ice. Shake well, and strain in fancy glass.15
Note the absence of bitters, distinguishing a julep from a cocktail:
One half tablespoonful of powdered sugar, one wineglass of water, one of whiskey, brandy or gin, etc., and one half dozen sprigs of mint. Use plenty of fine ice, and decorate with strawberries and pineapples, or any fruit in season.16
One lump sugar, one tablespoonful of water, one wineglassful of whiskey or brandy, one lump of ice. Use small bar glass.17
This recipe is from George Kappeler’s Modern American Drinks, published in 1895:
Dissolve a small lump of sugar with a little water in a whiskey-glass; add two dashes Angostura bitters, a small piece ice, a piece lemon-peel, one jigger whiskey. Mix with small bar-spoon and serve, leaving spoon in glass.18
Contrast this recipe of Kappeler’s with the one above:
Mixing-glass half-full fine ice, two dashes gum-syrup, two dashes Angostura or Peychaud bitters, one jigger whiskey. Mix, strain into cocktail-glass; add a small piece of twisted lemon-peel or a cherry.19
In 1917, when Thomas Bullock penned his book The Ideal Bartender,20 Congress had already proposed the Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution. When it was ratified in 1919, this amendment prohibited people in the United States from “producing, transporting and selling” alcohol; the Volstead Act was passed the same year to enforce these provisions. Consumption was not limited, however, which meant that the demand for alcohol was unchanged, but there was no (legal) supply. Canada also experienced a prohibition on alcohol, but it lasted for only one year, compared with more than thirteen years in the United States. When the Twenty-first Amendment was proposed in 1933, it took less than eleven months for Congress to pass it and for two-thirds of the states to ratify it, resulting in the repeal of Prohibition.
The following recipe from Bullock has several interesting elements:
Also of note is that Bullock used to work at the Pendennis Club before moving to the St. Louis Country Club and that the introduction to The Ideal Bartender is authored by the future president of the United States Golf Association, George Herbert Walker (for whom the Walker Cup is named), the grandfather and namesake of the forty-first president of the United States, George Herbert Walker Bush.
Use a toddy glass.
1 lump ice
2 dashes Angostura bitters
1 lump sugar, dissolved in water
1½ jiggers bourbon whiskey
Twist a piece of lemon skin over the drink and drop it in. Stir well and serve.
In 1933 Utah voted to ratify the Twenty-first Amendment, thus reaching the two-thirds majority needed to repeal Prohibition. By the end of the year, legal liquor started flowing again. Esquire magazine wasted no time issuing a “Top Ten Cocktail” list for 1934, which included the “Old Fashioned Dutch.”21 Note that this cocktail is similar to early versions of the Old Fashioned Whiskey Cocktail, with no fruit. When an Old Fashioned is made with yellow gin, it is referred to as a Golden Spike.22
2 dashes Angostura bitters
1 teaspoon water
2 ounces gin
2 large ice cubes
Place the sugar in an Old Fashioned glass or other smallish, heavy-bottomed tumbler. Add the bitters and water, and muddle the sugar until it dissolves. Add the gin—Genever or London Dry. Stir well, and add the ice cubes. Let it sit for a couple of minutes, and then have at it.23
This drink was introduced to the Waldorf in the days of its sit-down bar by (or in honor of) Colonel James E. Pepper of Kentucky, the proprietor of a whiskey distillery and a member of the famous Pendennis Club in Louisville.
¼ lump sugar
2 spoons water
1 jigger whiskey
1 piece lemon peel
1 lump ice
Serve with a small spoon.24
Irvin S. Cobb, a native of Paducah, Kentucky, became a legend in his own time. Cobb was a writer and humorist of the highest order, and some of his stories were made into Hollywood films. Cobb took up acting and eventually hosted the Seventh Academy Awards ceremony, where Shirley Temple received the Academy’s Juvenile Award. The following recipe is from Irvin S. Cobb’s Own Recipe Book, where he mentions that the Old Fashioned was created at the Pendennis Club “in Louisville in honor of a famous old-fashioned Kentucky Colonel.”25
½ piece sugar
2 dashes Angostura bitters
1 ice cube
1½ jiggers Paul Jones or Four Roses whiskey
2 dashes curaçao
1 slice orange
1 slice lemon
1 slice pineapple
Muddle the sugar and bitters with a pestle. Add the ice cube, whiskey, and curaçao, and decorate with fruit.
Marion Flexner’s Old Fashioned recipe in Out of Kentucky Kitchens (which features an introduction by Duncan Hines, who was a native of Bowling Green, Kentucky) mentions Irvin S. Cobb (see above).26 This recipe also suggests a connection between the Old Fashioned and the Kentucky Whiskey Toddy:
To the Kentucky Whiskey Toddy add a dash of Angostura bitters, a slice of lemon, half a slice of orange and a maraschino cherry.
½ teaspoon sugar (or 1 teaspoon, if you have a sweet tooth)
1 tablespoon tap water (or more if you like a mild drink)
1 spilling jigger bourbon whiskey
Crushed ice or 2 ice cubes
Mix the sugar and water. Add the whiskey. Pour into an Old Fashioned glass and fill with crushed ice or add ice cubes. Stir until chilled. Serve.
Using an old-fashioned glass, crush a small lump of sugar in just enough water to dissolve thoroughly. Add one dash of Angostura and two dashes of orange bitters. Add large cube of ice and one jigger of whiskey. Twist and drop in lemon peel, and stir until mixed thoroughly. Remove ice and garnish with cherry.27
Colonels and Kentucky seem to go together. This perception was solidified by Colonel Harland Sanders of Kentucky Fried Chicken fame. Another colonel from Kentucky, Michael Edward Masters (aka the Host of Kentucky), describes how to make an Old Fashioned with bourbon—as if there is a choice for a Kentucky colonel—in his book Hospitality Kentucky Style. Masters ties the Old Fashioned to the toddy, explaining how to adapt the toddy recipe to turn it into an Old Fashioned:
Pack crushed ice into an old-fashioned or tumbler glass. Add a teaspoon of sugar, a dash of Angostura Bitters, a maraschino cherry, and fine aged Kentucky bourbon whiskey. Place a slice of lemon and orange on the rim of the glass.28
Gary Regan is a bartender, a consultant, and the author of several books, including The Bartender’s Bible.29 He lists three recipes for the Old Fashioned that are identical, with the exception of the whiskey: one is made with bourbon, one with Scotch, and one with blended Canadian whisky. Regan suggests that Canadian whisky is the proper choice for a classic Old Fashioned.
3 dashes bitters
1 teaspoon water
1 sugar cube
Ice cubes
3 ounces whiskey (bourbon, Scotch, or blended Canadian whisky)
1 orange slice
1 maraschino cherry
In an Old Fashioned glass, muddle the bitters and water into the sugar cube, using the back of a teaspoon. Almost fill the glass with ice cubes, and add the whiskey. Garnish with the orange slice and cherry. Serve with a swizzle stick.
Robert Hess is the creator of www.drinkboy.com, one of the founders of the Museum of the American Cocktail, and the host and executive producer of The Cocktail Spirit, a Web-based video series on the Small Screen Network. He is also the author of The Essential Bartender’s Pocket Guide.30 Here is his version of the Old Fashioned:
1 sugar cube
1 teaspoon water
2 dashes Angostura bitters
Ice cubes
2 ounces American rye or bourbon whiskey
1 twist orange peel
1 maraschino cherry
Muddle the sugar, water, and bitters together until the sugar is mostly dissolved. Fill the glass with ice, and then add the whiskey. Stir briefly to chill. Garnish with the orange peel and cherry. Serve with straws.
1 teaspoon sugar
2 dashes Angostura bitters
1 orange wheel
1 maraschino cherry
2 ounces whiskey
Ice
Splash soda water
In a chilled Old Fashioned glass, muddle the sugar, bitters, orange wheel, and cherry until the sugar is dissolved. Add the whiskey, ice, and soda water and stir. Optional: garnish with a lemon twist.31
The idea that there is only one recipe for the Old Fashioned or that it should look a particular way is debunked by Brad Parsons, who points out, “The simplicity of the old-fashioned means that it lends itself to multiple variations.”32 Here are some of the modern variations that have been created by bartenders from around the world.
The Internet has changed many aspects of life, including how we find recipes. The following recipe comes from www.about.com and substitutes peach slices for orange slices and blackberries for cherries.
1 tablespoon simple syrup
5 dashes bitters
2 peach slices
2½ ounces Woodford Reserve bourbon whiskey
Ice cubes
2 blackberries
Splash sparkling water
Muddle the simple syrup, bitters, and one peach slice in the bottom of an Old Fashioned glass. Add the bourbon, ice cubes, remaining peach slice, blackberries, and sparkling water. Stir and combine.
Another “new” Old Fashioned is made “Wisconsin style,” or with brandy. This recipe comes from www.drinkoftheweek.com, which claims that this drink is more popular than cheese in Wisconsin.
Dash Angostura bitters
3 ounces Squirt or grapefruit soda
Ice
1 maraschino cherry
Lemon and orange slices for garnish
Mix the first three ingredients with ice in an Old Fashioned (rocks) glass. Add cherry and garnish.
This recipe comes from an advertisement for St.-Germain liqueur. The ad calls this drink one part tradition, one part refinement, and one part Bukowski—referring to Charles Bukowski, a German-born American poet and writer.
½ part St.-Germain
2 parts bourbon or straight rye whiskey
2 dashes Angostura bitters
Ice
Orange twist
Stir the ingredients into an Old Fashioned glass, add ice, and stir again as if you are a revolutionary. Add an orange twist and think progressively as you sip this new twist on a classic. Vive la Résistance!
The next three recipes were featured in Alison Miller’s December 2011 article “5 Bottles, 25 Drinks, One Happy Holiday” in Spirit: Southwest Airlines Magazine. Of the twenty-five drinks, three were Old Fashioneds, and one was an “improved” cocktail that shares many of the elements of the Old Fashioned. The recipes were gleaned from a number of expert and experienced bartenders.
Jeff Hollinger is identified as the “saloon keeper” of Comstock Saloon in San Francisco, California. Here is his recipe:
1 sugar cube
1 ounce water
1 large lemon peel
3 dashes Jerry Thomas’s Own Decanter Bitters by The Bitter Truth
2½ ounces Bols genever
Ice cubes
Muddle the sugar cube, water, lemon peel, and bitters in a double Old Fashioned glass. Add the genever and fill with several large ice cubes. Stir until well chilled.
Anu Apte, co-owner of Rob Roy, a craft-cocktail bar in Seattle, Washington, contributed this recipe:
2 ounces rye whiskey
½ ounce crème de violette
3 dashes Angostura bitters
1 large ice ball or cube
1 brandied cherry
Combine all the liquid ingredients in a mixing glass. Stir and strain into a double Old Fashioned glass over ice. Garnish with the brandied cherry.
Phil Ward is the co-owner of Mayahuel in New York City. He recommends the following:
1½ ounces El Tesoro reposado tequila
½ ounce Del Maguey Vida mescal
1 teaspoon amber agave nectar
2 dashes Angostura bitters
Ice
1 orange twist
Combine the liquid ingredients in a mixing glass. Add ice, stir, and strain into a rocks glass over ice. Garnish with a flamed orange twist.
This Old Fashioned is featured in Classic Cocktails from around the World by Allan Gage.33 It hails from La Bodega in Cairo, Egypt, where it is made with local rum. Gage writes that the 1920s-themed restaurant and bar is hard to find but worth the search. La Bodega is filled with local and foreign art, has a romantic view of the Nile, and features great classic cocktails.
Dash Angostura bitters
Dash lime bitters
1 teaspoon castor sugar
½ measure water
3 ice cubes
2 measures white rum
½ measure dark rum
Lime twist
Stir the bitters, sugar, and water in the bottom of a heavy-based rocks glass with 1 ice cube until the sugar dissolves. Add the white rum, stir, and add 2 more ice cubes. Add the dark rum, and stir again. Decorate with a lime twist.
This drink comes from Louisville bartender Kiersten Gillam. She replaces the cherries and sugar with blackberries and honey. It is important to note that honey is sweeter than sugar, so less is required to achieve the same level of sweetness.
½ orange slice
2 blackberries
¼ teaspoon (a drizzle) of honey
2 dashes Gary Regan’s orange bitters
Ice
1½ ounces bourbon whiskey
Soda to fill
In an Old Fashioned glass, muddle the orange slice, blackberries, honey, and bitters. Then fill the glass with ice, bourbon, and soda. Shake the ingredients together, strain the mixture into another glass over ice, and serve.
The Comfortably Old Fashioned comes from Lu Brow, the bartender at the Swizzle Stick Bar at Café Adelaide in New Orleans. This recipe was featured in The American Cocktail by the editors of Imbibe magazine.34
1 orange wheel, halved
½ bar spoon granulated sugar
2 dashes Angostura bitters
2 ounces Southern Comfort
Ice chunk
1 brandied cherry (see below)
Muddle the orange wheel, sugar, and bitters in an Old Fashioned glass. Add the Southern Comfort and stir. Add a large chunk of ice and garnish with a brandied cherry.
Here is Lu Brow’s recipe for brandying cherries.
1 pound sweet cherries
½ cup granulated sugar
½ cup water
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
1 cinnamon stick
Pinch freshly grated nutmeg
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup brandy
Wash and pit the cherries. In a small saucepan, combine the sugar, water, lemon juice, cinnamon stick, nutmeg, and vanilla and bring to a rolling boil. Reduce the heat to medium, add the cherries, and simmer for 5 to 7 minutes. Remove from the heat, stir in the brandy, and let cool. Transfer the cherries and their cooking liquid to a clean jar and refrigerate, uncovered, until the cherries are cool to the touch. Cover tightly and refrigerate for up to 2 weeks.
Brad Parsons offers up this twist on the Old Fashioned in his book Bitters.35 He points out that the dessert is easy to make, since the freezer does most of the work. Just make sure to break up the ice crystals every 30 minutes. This recipe makes 4 to 6 servings.
2 cups water
2 cups Demerara or turbinado sugar
1 cinnamon stick
1 tablespoon grated orange zest
1 tablespoon freshly squeezed orange juice
3 tablespoons bourbon
2 teaspoons Angostura bitters
1 teaspoon cherry juice
4–6 thick strips orange zest
Place a 9- by 13-inch glass or metal pan in the freezer to chill while you prepare the granita.
Combine the water and sugar in a saucepan over medium heat and stir until the sugar is completely dissolved. When it comes to a boil, remove from the heat and stir in the cinnamon stick, orange zest, orange juice, bourbon, bitters, and cherry juice. Let cool to room temperature.
Strain the mixture into the chilled pan and return to the freezer. After 30 minutes, stir the mixture with a whisk. Return the pan to the freezer for at least 3 hours, removing it every 30 minutes or so to scrape the ice crystals with a fork to break them up. You can leave the mixture chunky and crunchy, or break up the ice crystals more thoroughly for a softer, snowball-like consistency. Just before serving, give the granita one last fluff with a fork. Serve in short rocks glasses or Old Fashioned glasses garnished with strips of orange zest.
Jason Kosmas and Dushan Zaric feature three Old Fashioneds in their book Speakeasy.36 The Grand Fashioned is made with Grand Marnier as a substitute for whiskey.
1 teaspoon superfine sugar
3 dashes Angostura bitters
3 blood orange wedges, peeled
2 ounces Grand Marnier
¾ ounce freshly squeezed lime juice
Ice cubes
Muddle the sugar, bitters, and oranges in the bottom of a mixing glass. Add the Grand Marnier and lime juice. Add enough large ice cubes to fit in a rocks glass and shake vigorously but briefly. Pour the unstrained liquid into a rocks glass and serve.
Jonathan Lundy is the owner and executive chef at Jonathan at Gratz Park in Lexington, Kentucky. The native of Midway, Kentucky, has an impressive culinary pedigree, including an apprenticeship with chef Emeril Lagasse and a degree from Johnson and Wales University. His book Jonathan’s Bluegrass Table includes many of the recipes featured at his restaurant, along with his own interpretation of the Old Fashioned.37 Note that he uses a specific bourbon—Maker’s Mark (one of the bourbons that uses the Scottish spelling of whisky).
2 Old Fashioned Macerated Cherries (see below)
1 slice navel orange, cut into half-moons
2 tablespoons juice from Old Fashioned Macerated Cherries (see below)
3–4 dashes Angostura bitters
Ice
3 ounces Maker’s Mark Kentucky straight bourbon whisky
Splash ginger ale
In a large cocktail glass, muddle together the macerated cherries, 1 half-moon of navel orange, juice from the macerated cherries, and Angostura bitters. Fill the glass with ice and pour in the whisky. Stir to incorporate the ingredients. Top with ginger ale.
Chef Lundy suggests using only fresh cherries for this recipe.38
2 cups sugar
2 tablespoons bourbon
½ cup Grand Marnier
2 tablespoons honey
2 pounds fresh cherries, washed and pitted (about 5 cups)
Place the sugar, bourbon, Grand Marnier, and honey in a medium-sized pot. Bring to a boil on high heat. Reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Add the pitted cherries. Simmer for 5 minutes more. Remove from heat. Allow the cherries to cool at room temperature. Store in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.
As mentioned earlier, Olivier Said and James Mellgren are of the opinion that bourbon should be used to create an Old Fashioned, but in this recipe from The Bar, they call for either blended whiskey or bourbon.39
½ teaspoon superfine sugar or 1 sugar cube
2 dashes Angostura bitters
½ orange slice
1 maraschino cherry
1½ ounces whiskey (either blended whiskey or bourbon)
Ice
Club soda to fill
Place the sugar in an Old Fashioned glass and shake the bitters on top of it. Add the orange slice and cherry and mash strongly with a muddler or the back of a spoon. Add the whiskey, fill with ice, and then fill with club soda.
Scott Beattie, author of Artisanal Cocktails, prefers to use a well-aged bourbon when making an Old Fashioned, but as he states in his book, very few bourbons are fifteen years or older.40 Beattie uses a limited release of fifteen-year-old bourbon from the Van Winkle family, multiple bitters, and imported Italian cherries for this version of the Old Fashioned.
1 sugar cube
2 dashes Angostura bitters
2 dashes orange bitters
½ orange slice
3 Amarena cherries
½ ounce seltzer
2 ounces Pappy Van Winkle’s bourbon
Ice
Place the sugar cube in the bottom of a mixing glass and douse it with the bitters. Toss in the orange slice, one of the cherries, and the seltzer, and muddle it down. Add the bourbon and stir well. Add enough ice to fill the mixing glass half full, and stir a few times to mix. Pour the drink into a short (7 to 8 ounce) Old Fashioned glass to serve. Garnish with the remaining Amarena cherries skewered on a pick.
Earlier, I suggested that the Mint Julep may have been adapted from the Old Fashioned. Here is a new twist on that idea.
6 mint leaves
½ tablespoon simple syrup
Ice
3 tablespoons rye or bourbon
1 tablespoon orange bitters
Place the mint leaves in a rocks glass and top with simple syrup. Use a muddler to bruise the mint leaves to release the oils. Fill the glass with ice and pour in the rye or bourbon and bitters. Gently stir and serve.
This recipe was created by mixologist Xavier Herit and is featured in the book Cocktails and Amuse-Bouches, cowritten with chef Daniel Boulud.41 This drink’s unique presentation gives the concept of “rocks” a whole new meaning. Make sure to start this recipe a day ahead of time if you want to serve it at a party.
Ice cubes
1½ ounces 100-proof rye, such as Rittenhouse
¾ ounce vermouth, preferably Carpano Punt e Mes
¼ ounce maple syrup
8 drops peach bitters
4 drops Peychaud bitters
1 orange peel
1 lemon peel
Clean the inside of a latex balloon. Fill the balloon with enough filtered water to fit in a cocktail glass; tie to close. Place the balloon in the freezer, suspended, so that nothing touches it and it keeps its shape. Freeze until frozen. Remove the balloon from the ice ball and discard; keep the ice ball frozen until ready to use.
Fill a large glass with ice cubes. Add the rye, vermouth, maple syrup, and both bitters; stir to combine. Strain into a rocks glass and add the ice ball; garnish with orange and lemon peels. Serve.
1 ounce Canadian whisky
½ ounce amaretto
¼ ounce simple syrup
3 dashes bitters
Ice
1 piece orange peel
Stir the liquid ingredients in a shaker with ice. Strain into a rocks glass. Serve chilled, neat, and garnished with the orange peel.
This Old Fashioned holds a special place in my heart because it combines some wonderful memories from three different parts of the country: New Orleans, Kentucky, and Connecticut. The Dickie Brennan Bourbon House in New Orleans, located on Bourbon Street, features this recipe (and the one for the New Fashioned that follows) on its website, www.chefslagniappe.com. The lagniappe (pronounced lan-yap) in the website’s name refers to the tradition of giving something extra (a gift) to the customer (such as the thirteenth donut in a baker’s dozen). The website lives up to its name, offering some wonderful recipes. This Old Fashioned features Old Charter bourbon, which is made in Kentucky and refers to the charter oak tree, featured on the back of the Connecticut quarter issued by the U.S. Mint in 1999. It is also reminiscent of my alma mater, Charter Oak State College.
1 splash simple syrup
2 dashes Peychaud bitters
1 maraschino cherry
1 orange slice
2 ounces Old Charter bourbon
Ice
Combine the simple syrup, bitters, cherry, and orange in an Old Fashioned glass. Muddle into a paste with the back of a spoon. Add bourbon, fill with ice, and stir.
2 ounces macerated fruit
5 shakes Peychaud bitters
1 splash simple syrup
1 splash soda
2 ounces Knob Creek bourbon
Ice
Combine the macerated fruit (fruit that has been marinated in its own juices, with a touch of sugar, overnight), bitters, simple syrup, and soda in a rocks glass and muddle. Add the bourbon, fill with ice, and mix well.
Fill in the blanks to make an Old Fashioned that suits your own personal tastes.
_______ sugar cubes
_______ water
_______ dashes Angostura bitters
_______ ice cubes
_______ ounces _______________ whiskey or _______________ [another liquor]
_______ slice orange or _______________ [another citrus fruit]
_______ cherries
Place the sugar in an Old Fashioned glass. Add the water and dissolve the sugar. Add the bitters, mix, and top with ice cubes. Add the whiskey, mix well, and garnish with fruit.