Tuesday, November 20, 2018

Squid Mixes: Old-Fashioned Whiskey


The old-fashioned was, for a long time, the king of cocktails.  As it contains many of the same ingredients as my personal favorite, the Manhattan, I've been wanting to give it a try for a while.  However, I have had to avoid the drink for what I consider to be a highly amusing reason: my wife doesn't like having sugar cubes around the house.  Too tempting for snacking.

Most modern old-fashioned recipes (oxymoron?) involve sugar cubes, you see.  Put the cube in the bottom of the glass, add a little water and bitters, muddle to dissolve the sugar before adding everything else.  Why a cube?  It's an easily controlled quantity, usually 3/4 tsp - an annoying amount to have to measure.  Older recipes don't involve cubes which is handy for my house.

My recipe came from Imbibe! by David Wondrich.  It combines the sugar (1/2 tsp) and water with whiskey, Angostura bitters and lemon peel.  For those keeping score at home, the basic change in a Manhattan is the use of vermouth as a sweetener in place of the sugar.  No shaker or mixing glass involved - an old-fashioned is prepared right in the serving glass.  The recipe specifies leaving the spoon in when serving, presumably to stir in any undissolved sugar.

It's a lovely drink but you'd better like your whiskey.  My wife described it as "bracing."  Wondrich also includes brandy and gin options in the text.  Might be worth trying sometime.

So, why did the old-fashioned fall out of favor?  The preparation is rather fussy compared to younger concoctions.  But Eric Felten blames John Updike.  In his book How's Your Drink? (review soon), Felten makes the case: the old-fashioned is the drink of choice for Janice Angstrom, the protagonist's alcoholic wife in Rabbit, Run, Updike's breakthrough novel.

I guess Janice liked her whiskey.

Drink responsibly, friends.

8 comments:

  1. I used to drink Manhattans--I had a friend who made them with 1/2 Bourbon and half Southern Comfort along with vermouth and bitters--no need for sugar.

    www.thepulpitandhtepen.com

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    1. Sounds nice. And really, with the SoCo, one could just as easily do without the vermouth. Might be a worthy experiment sometime.

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  2. Well, google decided to spit me out and eat my comment. :/
    AND make me log back in, which I haven't done in... I don't know how long it's been, but, of course, I had no idea what my password was, so I had to go through that whole making a new one process.
    bah
    Anyway, I agree with the no sugar cubes thing. For reasons that only google now knows.

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  3. Oh My Goodness you are killing me. This sound so good !

    cheers, parsnip and parsnip

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    1. It was quite nice. I still prefer Manhattan. If I'm going to get this intimate with my whiskey, I'd rather do without the other ingredients entirely. Just ice.

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  4. I never knew that about sugar cubes in drinks. Nice trivia and whenever I think of Manhattans I think of the Simpsons. Never had one though

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    1. Maurice! Happy Thanksgiving!

      Gotta love the Simpsons...

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