Over the past week I seem to have developed a certain weakness for the whisky sour.
The problem with a lot of cocktails is not that they are difficult to make but that you just won’t have the ingredients lying around. There is always a Crème de Menthe, Blue Curaçao, or a grenadine syrup or something of that nature that you just won’t find in the average home. You could say that the whisky sour is no exception, as it requires Angostura bitters, and who has a bottle of that lying around? Surprisingly, I do.
Angostura bitters is one of those things that crops up in a lot of cocktails and as such, it’s worth getting hold of a bottle. Once you have, it will probably last you a lifetime. You only ever need a few drops or a dash in any cocktail and as it’s about 45% alcohol, it’s not likely to go off. My bottle must be about 15 years old and it’s still about 95% full.
The whisky sour is so worth making. For a start, it’s absolutely delicious. It is also a cinch to make. This is how I have been making it:
Put your glass in the freezer. A cocktail glass if you have one, but a tall-stemmed glass if you haven’t. Or just any glass that isn’t completely rubbish. If you develop a taste for the things, you can just keep a cocktail glass in the freezer or icebox on a permanent basis. It’s the wisest course of action.
Get out your shaker. If you don’t have one, how are you going to make about 80% of cocktails?
Put some ice in it. Quite a lot, say about half full.
Squeeze about half a lemon, unless it’s a really dry one, in which case you may need the whole thing. Pour that into any kind of glass that you might reasonably expect to be able to judge the quantity in. I have quite a lot of glasses marked at 2cl and 4cl – thanks to a past in the alcohol industry… But you don’t really need a mark.
Add to the glass the same quantity of sugar syrup.
Sugar syrup? You cry. Who’s got sugar syrup in their house? Clearly, almost no one. Thankfully, it’s absurdly simple to make. Just get a cup and fill it with water. Tip that in a saucepan. Bring it to the boil. Then fill your cup with sugar and pour that in. Stir to dissolve and then cover the saucepan and simmer for about 15 mins. Leave to cool. Job done. Nothing is stopping you from making a double quantity - two cups of water, two cups of sugar. Once it is cool, put it in a bottle. A clean wine bottle will do so long as you can cork it. Best to put it in the fridge where it will keep for weeks. To make sure you can keep it for weeks, they say to add a splash of vodka to it, so I tipped a bit of Smirnoff into mine. This is the only downside to sugar syrup: you’ll have to make it a day, or at least a few hours, in advance. There is no point suddenly getting the desire for a whisky sour if you haven’t already got some sugar syrup in your fridge. So, make that now.
Right, where were we? You’ve added as much sugar syrup to your glass as you have lemon juice. Chuck the glass contents into your shaker over the ice. Next, put 3 times as much whisky into the glass as you had lemon juice, or if you prefer, the same quantity as the sugar syrup and lemon plus 50%. If your glass is big enough, you can add it on top of the other ingredients before tipping it all into your shaker.
Next, splash in a couple of shakes of your Angostura Bitters. (Buy a bottle online if you can’t find any locally.)
Finally, and this might be the magic ingredient, add an egg-white to your shaker. Most people have access to an egg. What do you do with the yolk? Not sure, but I am thinking that there is some very yellow scrambled egg in my near future. The recipe says you don’t have to add the egg-white, but I have only made it with, and it gives a froth and a lightness that is sublime, so unless you are vegan, go for the egg-white.
Shake the shaker vigorously for about 20 seconds, or until it is painfully cold to the touch (ie. your hand is in agony holding the shaker). Strain the contents (your shaker probably has a built-in strainer) into the ice-cold glass that you have retrieved from the freezer. Garnish your drink with a maraschino cherry (you won’t have one of these) or some lemon. I just cut up a bit of the lemon that I used to squeeze the lemon juice from. It might not be cocktail bar-class, but it’s cheap and simple.
Enjoy your drink.
What you will discover is that it is so delicious that it is hard to resist a second one. But is that reasonable? Having put 6 cls of Johnnie Walker Red Label in mine, I’m thinking it isn’t reasonable and am resisting the temptation. Do as the mood takes you. You will obviously be drinking it quite fast while it is still cold, so it’s not going to last long, rather like a martini. It is also irresistible, so that it’s hard to make it last. It contains a mix of flavours like nothing else – I defy anyone not to like it. Of course, you can experiment with other whiskies and I almost certainly will. Some recipes seem to imply that you need bourbon, but you don’t. Maybe Johnnie Walker Black Label will be even better. It should be, but the Red Label version is already so good…
You can do this. Make the effort and you will wow both yourself and anyone fortunate enough for you to make one for. Cheers.