Cocktail Hacker

I whipped up an Embury Old Fashioned on Monday evening.  Despite the variables in the recipe the drink turned out to be very good.  I chose to go with the following quantities:

Embury's Old Fashioned:

2 oz Eagle Rare Bourbon
1 tsp Simple Syrup
3 Dashes Angostura Bitters
Twist of Lemon

Embury got this one right.  Unlike his other recipes I don’t have to change this recipe much to make the cocktail I’m looking for.  I like my Old Fashioned slightly sweeter, but not too much.  Also, I like the amount of bitters in this recipe, but I really like the flavors that the Fee Brother’s bitters add, so I’m thinking a mix may be in order.  Finally, the lemon twist isn’t adding much other than a nice bright color.  After watching Robert Hess’ great video on the topic I agree that an orange twist would compliment the sweet flavors in this cocktail better than lemon.  Given these considerations, here is the Old Fashioned that I made Tuesday night.

Reese's Old Fashioned (Attempt 1):

2 oz Eagle Rare Bourbon
3 tsp Simple Syrup
1 Dash Angostura Bitters
1 Dash Fee Brother's Bitters
Twist of Orange

Hmmm…still not quite there.  This recipe was a little sweeter than I like.  Probably decrease the syrup to 2 tsp.  Also, as you can see in the picture I’ve started using my Tovolo Perfect Cube ice cube trays.  I’m using filtered water to make the ice, but I’m still getting some cloudiness.  Look for more on my quest for perfect ice in the coming weeks.

Ice is essential to a good cocktail.  In the case of drinks served over ice, good looking ice is also a nice visual touch.  As I’ll discuss in detail in a later post I’m on a personal mission to create the perfect cocktail ice at home.  One of the requirements of what I deem good cocktail ice is a nice shape.  Picture, if you will, a wonderfully created Tom Collins served to your guests in a tall, thin Collins glass over the little milky crescents that your freezer pops out.  Just doesn’t seem quite right does it?  The Tovolo Perfect Cube Ice Cube Trays to the rescue!

These ice trays produce nearly perfect cubes about 1.25″ on a side.  The trays are made of food grade silicon so they won’t pick up weird freezer smells and as such won’t impart those scents to your ice.  They’re easy to fill and although they appear somewhat floppy once full of water they’re not too bad to handle.  The only problem I’ve run in to is that the ice is a little more difficult to get out of the trays than with a standard tray.

You can find the trays on Amazon.com, at Bed, Bath and Beyond and other retailers.  At about $10 for a pair they’re worth the investment.  And they’re a great step toward making your home cocktails even more elegant and professional.

Tovolo Perfect Cube Silicone Ice Cube Tray [Referrer Link]

Santa came extra early this year folks! Shortly after we launched the site my Aunt Ronnie ordered a boat load of cocktail books from Harper Collins. They all arrived yesterday!  As a result the Cocktail Hacker library has increased exponentially.

Here’s the list of books that Ronnie got for us:

The Ultimate Party Drink Book – Bruce Weinstein
The Bartender’s Bible – Gary Regan
Cocktails: An Indispensable Guide For the Budding Mixologist – Jeremy Harwood
Beer – Eve Adamson
champagne – Don and Petie Kladstrup
Shaken not Stirred -  Anistatia R. Miller and Jared M. Brown
In the Land of Cocktails – TI Adelaide Martin and Lally Brennan
The Complete Book of Spirits – Anthony Dias Blue
The Complete Book of Mixed Drinks – Anthony Dias Blue

I’m really looking forward to reading each of these and we’ll be posting reviews/highlights as we do.  Thanks so much Ronnie!

Well we’ve reached the last of Embury’s Six Basic drinks, the Old Fashioned.  Per Wikipedia, the Old Fashioned is thought to have been created as a Bourbon Whiskey cocktail at the Pendennis Club in Louisville, KY.  Then popularized by distiller Colonel James E. Pepper and later brought to the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City.

Pendennis Club Circa 1906

The Old Fashioned is truly an exercise in elegance through simplicity.  That’s not to say that it doesn’t need to be crafted with just as much care as a more complex recipe.  Robert Hess explained it thus: “When properly made, this cocktail can represent the pinnacle of the bartenders trade. When done improperly, which is more often the case, it can be a disaster of mediocrity.”  Robert also has an incredible chronology of the Old Fashioned at his site.

Embury’s Recipe holds true to the first known recipe (see Robert’s site, linked above) but adds a speared Maraschino cherry as a garnish.

“Pour into each glass 1 to 2 teaspoonfuls simple syrup and add 1 to 3 dashes Angostura. Stir with a spoon to blend the bitters with the syrup. Add about 1 oz. whisky and stir again. Add 2 large cubes of ice, cracked but not crushed (see page 100). Fill glass to within about 3/8″ of top with whisky and stir again. Add a twist of lemon and drop peel in the glass. Decorate with a maraschino cherry on a spear. Serve with short stir rod or Old-Fashioned spoon.” – David A. Embury, The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks

Or in a more digestible format.

Embury's Old Fashioned:

[Ingredients]

2 oz Whiskey
1-2 tsp Simple Syrup
1-3 Dashes Angostura Bitters

[Directions]

1) Combine Syrup, Bitters and 1/2 of the Whiskey in an Old Fashioned Glass
2) Stir to combine
3) Add two cubes of ice
4) Add remaining whiskey and stir again to until cold
5) Garnish with a twist of lemon and a maraschino cherry

This cocktail is the only one of Embury’s basic drinks that isn’t served in a cocktail (martini) glass.  Rather, it’s served in an Old Fashioned glass, named for the drink served within.  You can also use a small water/juice glass in a pinch.  The key is to not use a glass that’s much larger than the volume of the cocktail, it won’t look quite right.

After making the other cocktails we’ve covered you have all the ingredients you need, but here’s a quick run down.

Ingredients:

• Whiskey (Try a Bourbon)

• Angostura Bitters

• Maraschino Cherries

• Lemon

The tools you’ll need are very simple.

Tools:

• Old Fashioned or Other Small Glass

• Measuring Device (Jigger)

• Bar Spoon (Or other stirring stick)

Enjoy your Old Fashioned!

I came in to this week not knowing anything about the Manhattan.  I had never had one, nor had I had any other cocktails that use Sweet Vermouth.  To some extent I had a very twisted picture (or is that taste) in my head as to what the Manhattan would bring to the table.  From the previous week’s experience with the Martini I was expecting a very sharp herbal bite from the Vermouth that simply isn’t there in Sweet Vermouth.  Yes, there is a nice herbal flavor but it seems almost deeper and darker in some ways.  Add to that the wonderful flavors of whiskey and you’ve got a total winner.  Aaron decided not to participate this week, so I’m going solo on this wrap up, but I think I have some interesting stuff to share with you.

A Manhattan with Brandied Cherries

I started the week in Grand Lake with my Stepdad (Ken) and two of my Stepbrothers (Pete and Tom).  We had a very long day of working in the forest on Saturday cutting down and removing dead trees.  So, when it came time for happy hour everyone was ready for a Manhattan.  Seeing as I had never had one I started with a recipe I had seen in a number of places.

The Manhattan:

[Ingredients]

2 oz Bourbon or Rye Whiskey
1 oz Sweet Vermouth
2 Dashes Angostura Bitters

[Directions]

1) Combine ingredients over ice
2) Stir to combine and chill thoroughly
3) Strain in to a chilled cocktail glass
4) Garnish with a maraschino cherry

After our first installment we decided that this drink, referred to as “Brown Mumblers” by Pete’s coworkers, was a recipe that needed sampling several times.  Thankfully I had brought sufficient ingredients to make such an endeavor possible.  We tried both Van Winkle Family Reserve Rye and Eagle Rare Bourbon for the base spirit and found both to be fantastic.  I prefer the Rye personally as it gives the drink more of a spicy bite, but I assure you, you won’t be disappointed with either choice.  As for Vermouth I brought bottles of Noilly Prat and Cinzano.  They are more or less on par, but I think my house Sweet Vermouth will likely become the Cinzano as it has more depth of flavor.  I also brought along both Angostura and Fee Brother’s Barrel Aged Bitters, both are great but lead to a different end cocktail.  I’d recommend trying both as you will likely have a preference for one or the other.  Or, if you want to get super crazy, do what I do and combine them.  More on that later.  As I discussed in my previous post this week I don’t much like abnormally colored and deathly sweet maraschino cherries, so we passed on those entirely.  The drinks soothed our aching bodies and lead to a very pleasant evening.  There was even some drunken fishing involved, which I must say is a good time.  Pete caught three fish, I caught none, for those keeping score.

I also sampled a number of other recipe variants throughout the week.  For each of the following I used Eagle Rare Bourbon, Noilly Prat Vermouth and Angostura Bitters to be consistent.

Embury's Manhattan:

2 1/2 oz American Whiskey
1/2 oz Sweet Vermouth
Dash Angostura Bitters

This drink was good, but very strong on the bourbon, which is great when you have a good bourbon.  However, if the bourbon you’ve got isn’t top shelf this isn’t the recipe I’d choose.  Also, the bitters, being such a small amount, don’t really come through as much as I’d like.  Same holds true for the amount of Vermouth.  The drink is not particularly sweet as a result and little of the herbal notes shine through.  Overall, not my choice.

Difford's Guide Dry Manhattan:

2 1/2 oz Bourbon
1 oz Dry Vermouth
3 Dashes Angostura Bitters

A tasty combination overall, but not what I would call a true Manhattan.  The flavors of the Vermouth (Noilly Prat Dry) and Bourbon come through nicely but this drink lacks the sweetness I like in a Manhattan.  Onward!

Difford's Guide Perfect Manhattan:

2 1/2 oz Bourbon
1/2 oz Dry Vermouth
1/2 oz Sweet Vermouth
3 Dashes Angostura Bitters

My guess as to the “plan” with this drink is to keep the sweetness at a low level while bumping up the herbal flavors.  This is definitely accomplished.  The resulting drink has a deeper herbal smell than the Dry Manhattan while keeping the sweetness level low.  A very good cocktail to be sure, but not my cup of tea (or glass of Manhattan), I’m still looking for that additional sweetness of the Sweet Vermouth.  Which is a nice segue to…

Difford's Guide Sweet Manhattan:

2 1/2 oz Bourbon
1 oz Sweet Vermouth
1/8 oz Syrup from Maraschino Cherries
3 Dashes Angostura Bitters

I really like this recipe and it’s very near my preferred recipe.  The Vermouth adds the sweetness I crave and the bitters are there in sufficient quantities to bring a lot of flavor to the party.  Since we believe if full disclosure here at Cocktail Hacker, I should mention that I didn’t have any maraschino cherry juice at the time which would have bumped the sweetness level up even further.

Reese's Manhattan - Minus the Cherries - D'Oh!

My favorite Manhattan recipe for the week is very similar to the Difford’s Sweet Manhattan, with a couple small twists.  I change up the bitters by using both Fee Brother’s and Angostura.  I really like the additional cinnamon and clove notes that the Fee Brother’s adds.  I also don’t use the cherry syrup but bring up the Vermouth ratio to maintain the sweetness.  Furthermore, I go with Rye Whiskey over Bourbon as it brings the spicy flavor I mentioned above.  That said, this recipe works very well with Bourbon too.  For the garnish, use a maraschino if you must, but I would really encourage you to try making your own brandy soaked cherries.  They are truly fantastic.  I used dried bing cherries for my batch but I think I’ll use dried (or frozen) sour cherries next time for some added twang.

Reese's Manhattan:

[Ingredients]

2 oz Rye Whiskey
1 oz Sweet Vermouth
2 Dashes Angostura Bitters
1 Dash Fee Brother's Old Fashioned Bitters (Barrel Aged if You Can)

[Directions]

1) Combine ingredients over ice
2) Stir to combine and chill thoroughly
3) Strain in to a chilled cocktail glass
4) Garnish with a Cognac macerated cherry

That’s all I’ve got for this installment.  I hope you enjoyed your Manhattans this week as much as I have.  Next week is our last Embury cocktail, the Old Fashioned.

The garnish of choice for a Manhattan is a Maraschino cherry.  That word probably brings images of bright red, extremely sweet fruits floating up in your consciousness.  But, like many things in the cocktail world, it hasn’t always been that way.  Maraschino (pronounced Mara-skee-no) cherries were originally produced by macerating Marasca in Maraschino liqueur.  Introduced to the US in the late 1800’s these cherries were lightly sour and bright red in color.  They were a favorite among diners in fine restaurants.  Once good old prohibition rolled around though, things had to change.  Clearly you can’t have cherries macerated in liqueur when liqueur is now illegal.  Enter the Maraschino (pronounced Mara-shee-no) cherry as we know it today.

First developed by Ernest H. Wiegand, Maraschino cherries now days are cherries that have been dyed red (or any other color), flavored with almond oil and packed in a sugar syrup.  Needless to say the flavor of these cherries differs from the original quite substantially.  Alas, the classic Maraschino cherry isn’t widely available in the US.  There is however a substitute that is supposed to be very good, Amarena Fabbri Wild Cherries [Referer Link].  These are Italian Amarena cherries that are pitted and macerated in a sweet syrup.  So the good news is, they’re not nearly as processed as the Maraschino cherries you find on store shelves here, but they still aren’t really the real deal.

Another option, which is my preferred method, is to make your own macerated cherries.  In my case I took dried bing cherries and soaked them in cognac.  The resulting cherries are wonderfully chewy (a good thing) and very deeply cherry flavored.  They’re a great garnish for a Manhattan or to just nibble on.  If you’re looking for some more reading there is a nice discussion on eGullet on how to make your own Maraschino-like cherries.  There is also a nice thread on Chowhound about Brandied Cherries that is an interesting read.

One of the best explanations I’ve heard is that bitters are like spices for cocktails.  You would never cook certain dishes without spices and the same is true of some cocktails and their bitters.  Old timers only considered drinks with bitters to be true cocktails.  The quote on our Mission page sums it up nicely.  A cocktail is “a stimulating liquor composed of spirits of any kind, sugar, water, and bitters.”  This week’s cocktail is an excellent example of how bitters can elevate a cocktail from mediocre to wonderful.  If you don’t believe me, try a Manhattan without bitters some time.  But, what exactly are bitters?

The page on Wikipedia gives a great definition.  “A bitters is an alcoholic beverage prepared with herbs and citrus dissolved in alcohol or glycerine and having a bitter or bittersweet flavor. There are numerous brands of bitters, which were formerly marketed as patent medicines but are now drunk as digestifs.”  That page also gives a list of current and past bitters, although it’s not complete.  Another good reference with a lot of bitters history is Robert “Drinkboy” Hess’ page on the subject.  Finally a great discussion of all things bitters is the 12 page forum thread on eGullet.  There are also some great pictures of older bitters.  At this point I should mention that bitters basically last indefinitely so if you encounter an old bottle don’t immediately toss it.  Give it a taste, you might be pleasantly surprised.

As for what you should have in your cocktail bar I think three types are essential: Angostura, Peychaud’s and some form of Orange Bitters (Fee Brothers and Regan’s are both great).  Angostura bitters have a nice cinnamony sort of flavor and Peychaud’s have a stronger licorice note.  A good way to introduce yourself to the flavors is to add a few dashes of bitters to a small amount of water (sparkling or still) and sample.  This will mellow the bitterness and allow the other flavors to come through.

Bitters are becoming very widely available in liquors stores all over.  But, if you can’t find a specific brand you’d like to try turn to the internet, for it solves all problems.  Kegworks carries a huge selection of bitters and other cocktail tools.  Some bitters brands to try if you’re interested in branching out are Fee Brothers and The Bitter Truth.  A final option is to make your own bitters.  We’ll be covering this in depth in a later post as I’m very excited about making my own ingredients.

The Manhattan is like the Martini’s deeper more complex brother.  Said to have been created in the 1860’s by a bartender named Black at a bar on Broadway, the drink is a simple combination of Whiskey, Sweet Vermouth and Bitters.  This drink is also known by some as a drinking man’s cocktail and the king of cocktails.  So, naturally, I’m quite excited to start mixing one up.

However, I had the most trouble of any of the cocktails we’ve covered finding Embury’s actual recipe.  And since the reprints aren’t out yet I was forced to go with the recipe listed on Wlkipedia.  I do this with some trepidation because, as we’ve seen in past weeks, the recipes listed on Wikipedia are not always what Embury actually listed in his book.  But, seeing as I couldn’t find any other references, we’ll use this as our starting point.

Embury's Manhattan (as per Wikipedia):

[Ingredients]

2 1/2 oz American Whiskey
1/2 oz  Italian (sweet) Vermouth
Dash of Angostura Bitters

[Directions]

1) Combine ingredients over ice
2) Stir to combine and chill thoroughly
3) Strain in to a chilled cocktail glass
4) Garnish with a maraschino cherry

It’s interesting to note, and I’ll discuss it more later in the week, that what we know as maraschino cherries are, in fact, nothing like real maraschino cherries as they would have been served when this cocktail originated.

The ingredients we’ll be using this week are pretty standard.

Ingredients:

• Whiskey (I'd recommend a Rye Whiskey)

• Sweet (Italian) Vermouth

• Angostura Bitters

• Maraschino Cherries
  

The tools you’ll need are nearly an exact copy from last week, minus the zester.

Tools:

• Cocktail Shaker (Just the bottom half)

• Strainer

• Cocktail (Martini) Glass

• Measuring Device (Jigger)

• Bar Spoon (Or other stirring stick)

Until next time enjoy your cocktails.

[NOTE] I’ve been asked by a couple people if I’m taking the pictures that go along with the intro posts.  I have to admit that I’m not.  Since we haven’t mixed up the cocktail we’re covering as yet I don’t have pictures to use.  So I turn to Stock.Xchng, a great place for free stock photos.  The pictures in the others posts are all ours though.

Whether you’re drinking it with classic Gin, or the favored Vodka, dirty, extra dirty, with olives, with a twist, with orange bitters or completely unadulterated one thing is for sure, you feel more sophisticated while drinking this elegant drink.  The Martini is a dirnk that has spawned an entire generation of cocktail drinkers.  Whether its worth it might be questionable, though.

I really enjoy both olives and vermouth, which was quite a surprise to me.  My favorite recipe of the week would probably not be called a Martini by purists (but I like it) is The Wunderlich Clan Martini that I discussed earlier in the week.  I would suggest trying a bit of alteration and add some Orange Bitters (both Regan’s and Fee Brother’s are excellent, although quite different).  Orange bitters would work especially well with a citrus forward Gin (such as Indigo or Burnett’s).  As for the olives, I suggest that you go nuts.  Try all kinds of flavors, jalapeno, citrus, nut stuffed, anything you like.

Aaron’s take on this drink is quite different.  Being neither a fan of olives or Vermouth the Martini is really not his cocktail, so to speak.  He prefers the ice wash method when adding Vermouth.  Which is simply adding a touch of Vermouth, swirling with ice to coat and cool the glass and dumping out before adding your chilled cocktail.  This will give you an extremely light hint of Vermouth but will still add a bit of flavor.  As for garnish he opts for a lemon twist rather than olives.

As for Embury’s recipe I wasn’t impressed.  It was a decent expression of whatever Gin you chose, in my case I used Plymouth Gin as my control, but I didn’t think it was that “De Luxe” of a cocktail.  In this case Plymouth Gin is quite strongly flavored and overcomes the small amount of Vermouth that you added.  The citrus twist over the prepared cocktail adds some nice flavors, but doesn’t rescue it for sure.  Personally I’d recommend both twisting over the drink and rubbing the rim of your glass with the zest.  This will increase the flavor even further as you enjoy the cocktail.

As for Vermouth, I tried both Noilly Pratt and Martini & Rossi.  I found both to be good, but I’m not enough of a connoisseur to tell you which I think is the best.  Aaron’s choice for Dry Vermouth is Vya, one I didn’t get the chance to sample this time around.  Thankfully Vermouth is rather cheap in comparison to the other ingredients so you can try a few different brands and decide what you like best.  One thing to keep in mind.  Vermouth, unlike most spirits, is somewhat perishable, so keep it in your fridge once you’ve opened it to maintain the best flavor.

Well, I can’t say that the Martini is my favorite cocktail thus far, but it’s a tasty change of pace.  My best suggestion to anyone wanting to try Martini’s is try a bunch of recipes.  Find what you like.  And most of all, enjoy it.

As you may have gathered from my previous posts I’m a fan of Oxo kitchen tools.  So, when I needed a citrus zester/channel knife I naturally turned to Oxo.  I picked up the zester you see at the left and I’d very much like to give it a glowing review.  But…I can’t.

When I first brought the tool home the channel knife portion, which is what I was most interested in, was painfully dull.  It was so dull that the lemon twists it made were ragged and it was very hard to manage.  So, being a hacker, I busted out my dremmel tool and modded it.  I sharpened the channel knife and now it works like a champion.  However, the primary problem is that most people aren’t as geeky as I am and wouldn’t like a tool they have have to modify to make work correctly.  So, that being the case, I sent an email to Oxo informing them of my problems.  Their customer service was very responsive and they sent me a replacement right away.  Well, to be exact, they sent me two replacements for some reason.

Both of the replacement tools have been much sharper and therefore more usable.  So, in summary, if you’re looking for a channel knife/zester take a look at the all the options out there.  Make sure you get a tool with a nice sharp cutting blade, it will make nicer looking cuts and will be much easier to use.  I’m not going to give a referrer link this time due to my problems with the Oxo tool.  There are tons of options on Amazon though, so take a peek and find something you like.