STIRRING VS. SHAKING
| As a general rule: | Stir spirit-only drinks. | Shake any drink with citrus, cream, eggs, and/or muddled ingredients. |
A Manhattan (page 41) is stirred because it’s made up of whiskey and vermouth, which simply need to be blended together. A Ramos Gin Fizz (page 42), the classic egg drink, needs to be shaken to emulsify the eggs and citrus.
If you want to explore the value of these techniques, make two martinis. Stir one, shake the other. You’ll be able to see and taste remarkable differences. The shaken martini will be cloudy, effervescent (fizzy), and textured with icy shivs, whereas a perfectly stirred martini will be transparent with a texture like velvet.
For more on the timing of these techniques, see our lessons on how to make a perfectly stirred and shaken drink.
Note: Shaken cocktails are strained from the larger, metal half of the shaker with a hawthorne strainer while stirred cocktails are strained from the mixing glass with a julep strainer.
ROLLING A COCKTAIL
Rolling is a technique somewhere between shaking and stirring. If a drink needs to be blended but you don’t want to flatten the flavors with a true shake, pouring it from one half of the shaker to the other and back again is called “rolling.” We mention it with the El Presidente cocktail (page 83), which we believe works wonders for the drink, but it can be used in many applications, including daiquiris and mojitos.
BUILDING A DRINK IN THE GLASS
Built drinks are created in the glass in which they are served. They often involve either muddling or the addition of carbonated water.
MUDDLING
The key to muddling is to gently press the ingredients against the side of the glass to release their oils. No need to muddle lime wedges or mint leaves to bits—there’s nothing worse than sipping a mojito so overmuddled that the mint catches in your teeth. If you don’t have a muddler, you can improvise using the handle of a wooden spoon.
DOUBLE-STRAINING
If a drink contains eggs or seedy berries, sometimes a recipe will call for straining through a second, finer mesh. It can also be used to clear excess ice shivs from a shaken drink. All you need is a small kitchen strainer or tea strainer. Hold it over your cocktail glass as you strain your drink through it from the shaker. To help the liquid pass through the fine mesh, tap the strainer against the shaker.
RINSING (OR WASHING) THE GLASS
If a recipe calls for an “absinthe rinse,” you can spritz absinthe on the inside of your cocktail glass using an atomizer. Or, simply pour about ¼ ounce (7 ml) of spirit into the chilled glass, whirl it around to coat the insides, and discard any extra drops.
DRY SHAKING
Dry shaking helps to emulsify a drink containing egg, which is challenging to incorporate with spirits. For a dry shake, skip the ice and shake the ingredients vigorously for at least 10 to 15 seconds. Then, open the shaker and if things look frothy and well combined, add ice and reshake. Where dry shaking is required in this book, we say so in the recipe.
A NOTE ON SHAKER STYLES
The cobbler shaker is the iconic three-piece shaker of yesteryear, but it can be difficult to get apart when it gets cold. The Boston shaker is simpler in design and has become the professional bartender tool. It has two parts that fit snugly together—a pint glass and a metal shaker bottom.
HOW TO MAKE A SHAKEN DRINK
(THE CORPSE REVIVER NO. 2, PAGE 149)
Chill a cocktail glass.
Set out gin, Cointreau, Cocchi Americano, absinthe, and ¾ ounce fresh lemon juice.
Fill a Boston shaker a little more than half full with ice.
Measure into your shaker: ¾ ounce (22 ml) lemon juice, ¾ ounce (22 ml) Cocchi Americano, ¾ ounce (22 ml) Cointreau, 1 ounce (30 ml) gin.
Cover your shaker (put the metal top over the pint glass at a slight angle). Give the top of it a whack with the heel of your hand to create a seal.
Flip the shaker so the glass side is up. Place one hand on the bottom of the metal tumbler and your other hand securely along the top of the glass.
Shake so that the contents slosh vigorously—you want to incorporate the citrus and aerate the drink to make it effervescent. Shake 8 to 12 seconds.
Place the shaker back on the counter, metal side down. Then, a solid whack on the side of the Boston shaker with the heel of your hand will separate the two parts.
Rinse your chilled glass with absinthe by pouring in about a teaspoon and swirling it around. Then, strain the drink using the hawthorne strainer capped over the shaking tin. Serve immediately.
THE SCIENCE OF THE STIR
Why such exacting directions for a stirred cocktail? Keep this in mind: you’re working to reduce the drink temperature to under 40 degrees without making it too watery. A good stir will assure that approximately ¼ of the drink will be melted ice.
HOW TO MAKE A STIRRED DRINK
(THE MANHATTAN, PAGE 41)
Chill a cocktail glass.
Set out rye whiskey, sweet vermouth, Angostura bitters, and cherries. Set out your mixing glass, a bar spoon, and a julep strainer.
Fill your mixing glass about two-thirds full of ice.
Season the ice with 2 dashes of Angostura bitters. Measure 1 ounce (30 ml) of sweet vermouth and 2 ounces (60 ml) of rye whiskey into the mixing glass.
To stir, position the handle of a bar spoon between your second and third fingers. Slowly, move the spoon clockwise for 20 to 30 seconds. Stirring brings the temperature of the drink down and dilutes the spirits with just enough water to open up the aromatics. A gentle hand ensures that you won’t incorporate bubbles. You want an ice-cold Manhattan without any froth.
Strain into a chilled cocktail glass.
Garnish with a cherry.