Pisco Sour
Other than good pisco, the secret to Peru’s most famous cocktail is el limón Peruano (see page 33). Peruvian limes are tangier than the everyday variety of limes you find in the United States. You can get really close to the flavor with an equal mix of lemon and lime juice, which is what I use.
- 2 ounces (about 4 tablespoons) good-quality pisco, such as Portón
- 1 large egg white
- Scant ½ ounce (about 2½ teaspoons) fresh lime juice
- Scant ½ ounce (about 2½ teaspoons) fresh lemon juice
- ¾ ounce (about 1½ tablespoons) simple syrup (see page 235)
- Angostura bitters
Combine the pisco, egg white, lime and lemon juices, and simple syrup in an ice-filled cocktail shaker. Shake to the beat of good salsa music until the egg white is very foamy, a solid 10 seconds. Strain into a rocks glass and top the pisco sour with a dash of bitters.
La Historia del Pisco Sour
The original pisco sour recipe was developed in the 1920s at a bar owned by Victor Morris, an American businessman living in Lima, back when whiskey sours were popular. Or so the story has long been told, until mixologist Franco Cabachi of Lima’s Pitahaya Bar tweeted a photo of a recipe he found in Nuevo Manual de Cocina a la Criolla, a Peruvian-Creole cookbook dating to 1903 that was printed in Lima. In Peru, “creole” refers to criollos, or those born in Peru with mainly Spanish colonial ancestry. Though called simply a “cocktail,” it sounds a lot like a pisco sour, and even includes the egg white missing from earlier recipes. Who knows . . . maybe the cocktail is even more Peruano than people once thought.