Tuesday 6 January 2015

Old Fashioned (re-entry)

Well dear drinkers, here I am again nagging about one of my favourite cocktails, the Old Fashioned.

My first entry on this blog about the Old Fashioned was, very honestly, a whole bunch of Bullshit (with a capital 'B'). In my own defence, I was only just getting to know cocktails, I hadn't drunk that much Old Fashioned's in my life, I looked for recipes and inspiration in the wrong places,... You get the picture.


While I was trying out many different cocktails at the time, finding and creating a good Old Fashioned recipe was still somewhat of a quest for me. So I decided to drink more of them made by different bartenders, tried out new recipes and different bitters. In every cocktail bar I visited, I ordered an Old Fashioned just to taste and try them. I've even gone so far that I watched numerous episodes of Mad Men in order to see how Don Draper drinks his Old Fashioned.


There are a few options which you can choose from when making an Old Fashioned. The first and most important choice is the liquor. There is a wide variation Old Fashioned style drinks with different liquors. My personal favorites are bourbon, rye whiskey and tequila. The original Old Fashioned was with bourbon or rye whiskey so I'm not going to tell you too much about the Tequila Old Fashioned except that I make it with agave syrup instead of sugar, with Fee Brothers Aztec Chocolate Bitters instead of Angostura and it is f*'in awesome!


The next thing you will need in your drink is sugar. The original recipe calls for a sugar cube which you need to dissolve in soda water after soaking it in Angostura Bitters. Personally, I find a sugar cube a bit too much sugar for this drink. It is also quite difficult to dissolve sugar in a cold liquid (when I make cold process simple syrup I have to shake the hell out of my jar) and it is even harder to dissolve it in alcohol. This is one of the main reasons why bartenders use simple syrup in their Old Fashioned today. I do it in a slightly different way. I take a barspoon of sugar, soak the sugar in Angostura Bitters and add a splash of soda water. Then I stir vigorously until most of the sugar is dissolved before adding the rest of my ingredients.


Another ingredient that is absolutely indispensable are bitters. Today there is a very wide variety of bitters available for professional bartenders and enthusiast like me who have turned their kitchen into a bar. The most popular bitters on the market are Angostura Bitters. Along with sugar and the liquor these form the base of the Old Fashioned. These are like the cheese in a cheeseburger. You simply can't make this drink without them. Depending on the whiskey I choose to make my Old Fashioned, I add another dash of bitters to the drink. When I use bourbon, I want accentuate the smooth and sweet taste of the bourbon and I find Regan's Orange Bitters No 6 ideal for that. A future project of mine is to make my own orange bitters and try an Old Fashioned with those. (I'll keep you posted) When I use rye whiskey, I want to have a spicy dry taste and there are 2 bitters which do the trick for me in that case, Fee Brothers Whiskey Barrel Aged Bitters an Peychaud's Bitters.


For as far as spirits go, most of the time I used Bulleit rye and bourbon. They are quite good for the price you pay but there is certainly better. When I use another bourbon, my choice is quite obvious. My preference is absolutely Maker's Mark. It's not too expensive and it is such a beautiful product. When I make an Old Fashioned with rye whiskey, my preference is a bit expensive. An Old Fashioned made with Michter's Straight Rye Whiskey is like angels pissing on your tongue but it is very difficult to find Michter's in Belgium and when you do stumble upon a bottle, you pay the price. A rye that is fairly better than Bulleit is Old Overholt. It comes in 1l bottles so I can make a whole lot of Old Fashioneds with one of those. Rittenhouse is a great rye whiskey too but the alcohol percentage is higher than in other whiskeys so you might want to adapt your measurements.


Well that was quite the mouthful so I'll just shut up right now and tell you how I make an Old Fashioned today:


2 oz/60ml rye or bourbon whiskey


1 barspoon of sugar
3 dashes of Angostura Bitters
1 dash of additional bitters depending on the whiskey

I put a barspoon of sugar in an Old Fashioned glass, soak the sugar with 3 dashes of Angostura, add a splash of soda water and stir until most of the sugar is dissolved. Then I add 4 icecubes and the whiskey and I stir to dilute some of the ice. Next I add 1 dash of Orange, Peychauds or Barrel Aged Bitters and 4 more ice cubes and I stir to chill. To finish I take an orange peel and squeeze it over the drink and I rub it around the rim of the glass. As a final touch, I drop the orange peel in the glass as garnish.


Cheers!


Oskar

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