Ol’ Fashioned Way

It is about time I wrote a post and shared a recipe for some of the classics I have been experimenting with in the past many days. I have been putting up recipes of my cooking and in the process have been receiving a lot of feedback from people asking me to share cocktail recipes.

I know I have been on top of the game lately with visiting several bars and bartenders (read, mixologist) in the city and the world (around my travels) and one way or another my search for a classic cocktail never ceases. I have moved away from wine and learnt the art of appreciating a well made cocktail. From infusions to shrubs to house made bitters and syrups, todays bartenders are shaking and stirring the cocktail world with their innovative creations.

If you were to ask me, I still prefer a classic the original way and only opt for variations as a beginner cocktail. I have been lucky to have visited several bars in my travels which have gone beyond the classics and come up with interpretations of pre-prohibition style cocktails of the later 15th and 16th Century too (punches and spirit forward creations). So while the world is on its journey to discovering the joys of cocktail drinking as when it first started we are still way far behind from what is served up to us on a regular basis.

It is a fad today to have Negroni’s an Old Fashioned’s on a bar menu. In fact I have seen them to be one of the first few items on the list of specials. I do not know if it has become a habit or pure wicked intentions, but even though I know my cocktail experience will be unsatisfactory (in those cases where I am totally depending on an unknown bartender to make my cocktail) I still take a chance and order one. Trust me it is not only in India but a lot of places abroad where the bartender usually either goes overboard in creating a variation out of his own mind or messing up the technique.

I have noticed time after time several reasons why bars mess up the classics and it is not always due to the lack of knowledge or ignorance. I list below some observations, but these are not only restricted to the ones I have mentioned.

• the Ice, one of the main ingredients of almost all cocktails, the ice can be a harbinger of trouble to a quintessential classic. Ice is used for two purposes, one is to chill the drink and the second is to add enough dilution to make a spirit forward cocktail – drinkable. Usually stirred drinks (in technique) are always stirred in a separate glass with cubes or cracked ice and the bartender knows exactly how much the ice needs to dilute a cocktail and the strain it out onto a much larger piece so as to prevent quicker dilution yet keep the cocktail chilled enough till they are done consuming it. In tall drinks or shaken drinks the chemistry is similar. The right amount of shaking over ice and then straining it onto fresh ice makes it a perfect cocktail. In a high-energy bar today when over achieving bar managers coerce their team to put up classics when the space is overcrowded and when the going gets tough, the bartenders have to resort to shortcuts to get that drink out to drunk revelers. So stirring the dr
• ink the glass directly and using melting / smaller ice cubes create a very non-palatable, over diluted drink. Of course I have seen in some cases the bartenders resorting to these tactics even when I am the only person at the bar (well in this case I blame absolute ignorance)
• The lack of correct ingredients, this results in two variables. One the drink does not have the correct ingredient, and two, the drink will have less than normal for what the usual recipe calls for of that particular ingredient. I have seen Negronis been served with less Campari (it is supposed to be a 1:1:1 ratio of the 3 main ingredients) because of Campari being stocked less by the bar. I have even come across bartenders telling me that they use less Campari because “people find the cocktail too bitter”. Yes it has an underlying bitterness but its one of the most balanced cocktails you can find till date, and it is going to be bitter if you use substandard spirits and don’t balance out the ingredients which marry well. Sometimes lemons are used instead of limes and vice versa which changes the whole symmetry of the taste profile adding an acrid sharpness when its supposed to be a mellowed citrus.
• The subversiveness due to cost. The biggest challenge I have come across in most bars. Cost control. It is pathetic and the most ridiculous reason which actually make cocktails go bad. The use of low level whiskey instead of bourbon in a classic which calls for bourbon, the measure of spirit where todays standard pours are 30ML for cocktails (easy to do the small-large versions when you doing a gin an tonic) and its difficult to imagine making a classic cocktail which calls for more levels of spirit in total (A Negroni is 30 ML x 3 spirits making it a 90ML cocktail, while some bars are blatantly adding 10ML of Campari and 20 + 20 of gin and vermouth making it a NO-groni) and the overall control over the kind of stocks one keeps and yet has every possible classic listed on the menu, clearly one which requires a good number of spirits which go in these cocktails in various combinations.
• The wrong glass – yes, bars today have low inventory outlook which includes glassware (did you know one has to account for 2% breakage every big party they have, and which goes up to 5% when the place is overcrowded) and serving up an old fashioned in a huge tumbler usually ends up in them having to over dilute the drink with extra ice to ‘fill up’ the glass and make it look like the drink is big and VFM. Classics have specific glassware associated with each of them. In most cases the glasses were designed to hold the exact amount of cocktail after dilution, especially the ones served straight up without ice. Many a times I have seen huge cocktail glasses (the ones used for generic fruit based martinis) been used for a classic dirty martini and been filled to the brim with ice.

It is because of these factual problems which land up deterring first timers like the many I know. These poor ones are the people who land up finding their classic cocktail experience a horrible one and going back to their usual tipples.

I know this for a fact, because no matter what level of drinker (the whiskey ones to the vodka-soda ones) I have made a good old fashioned for, he/she has been an instant convert to this ubiquitous cocktail and remembered me for it. A well made cocktail is going to be a surefire win, especially if it is someone who wants to try it for the first time.

An old fashioned is one amongst the few complex (tasting!) cocktails in the classics world. I have learnt to master it over time and I do also dabble in variations given that I entertain at home quite often.

So while bourbons and gins form a major part of my home bar, I have found infusing them with herbs and fruits when throwing a party, really turns things around for my guests and me. So while I can make a mean old fashioned in my sleep, I thought of bringing in subtle tweaks to the base spirit(s) and create something unique. Here I give you a first time try, the ol’ fashioned way, where I landed up infusing the flavor of the season, the illustriously famed tart red berry – the strawberry in bourbon.

An old fashioned has a juicy, puckering mouthfeel when one consumes it, it’s quite sexy and you land up drinking it often too quickly. The bourbon is the sharp element and its mellowed by the sugar cube and the dilution with the fresh scent of orange oils enveloping the cocktail (all thanks to the peel). By infusing the sweet and tart berry into the bourbon (albeit trying to muddle it up in the cocktail direct making it a sweet muddled drink instead) you are actually capturing the essence of the fruit without changing the chemistry of the cocktail too much (most classics you will observe are either clear drinks or slightly dirty but rarely contain added ‘visible’ fruit).

Try bottling your own infusions with this super easy recipe and I will try and indulge myself in more experiments too, to share. This one actually turned out to be quite an upgrade and I tested it on a few of my guests who couldn’t for the love of the giggle water figure out what had I added which made it so familiar yet taste so different. The combination of berries in vanilla-caramel heightened spirit along with a juicy bite of the cherry bitters and the orange, combined an autumnal feel to an otherwise classic old fashioned.

Strawberry Old Fashioned

Ingredients

For the Strawberry Infused Bourbon

• 750ML Bottle of Bourbon
• 250gms Fresh Strawberries

For the Strawberry Old Fashioned

• 60ML Strawberry Infused Bourbon
• 1 Sugar Cube
• 10ML Blood Orange Bitter Syrup | 2 dashes Orange Bitters
• 2 dashes Cherry Bitters
• Orange Peel Garnish
• Ice cubes + Ice Sphere

Method

For the strawberry infused bourbon

Hull and cut off the soft parts of the strawberries and chop them up into large chunks.

Pop open the bottle of bourbon (if it is filled way too much to the top or if you have a one liter bottle like I did) use/siphon off 250ml and in the balance 750ml add the strawberries.

Close the cover and keep inside a cool, dark place to infuse. Within 24 hours you will notice the color of the strawberries have been stripped off and the bourbon has a slight reddish hue. Shake everyday a little (not too vigorously as you do not want the berries to bruise and turn into a mush). Keep infused for about 5-7 days tops.

One the 5th/7th day, strain the infused spirit. Do not press or squeeze the fruit.

Discard the strawberries and pour the now infused liquor back into the bottle. This will stay for a good 3 months on your shelf and makes about 12 cocktails.

For the Strawberry Old Fashioned

In a glass / crystal mixing glass, place the sugar cube and douse with the bitters and bitter syrup. Crush with a cocktail spoon and mix well till dissolved. Add cubes of ice and 60ML of the bourbon to the mixing glass and stir well.

Stir till you feel the drink is chilled through and strain over a old fashioned glass in which an ice sphere has been placed. Squirt a fresh orange peel over the drink and chuck the peel into the glass (rubbing the oils of the peel on the edges to give that extra burst of citrus).

Serve immediately.

Nonchalant Note

I used the blood orange bitters syrup which I found in a store in the U.S., if you can find it great, if you cannot, the star is the strawberry bourbon. Use this bourbon to make old fashioned the regular way with regular bitters and a sugar cube, you should be as fine and unique as you can get.

I used a bottle of Woodford Reserve bourbon. Even for infusions I recommend using top shelf spirits as they are best used in classics / spirit forward cocktails.

I must suggest you get the ice-sphere moulds which are easily available online on either amazon or your nearest kitchen store. Using ice-spheres slows down the dilution of the cocktail and keeps it chilled till the last drop. If you were to use smaller ice-cubes I would recommend using a few in the glass rather than top it up like we are used to here.