Traditional Old Fashioned
1 measure whisky
1 sugar cube
2 dashes bitters
splash of water
Garnish:
lemon or orange twist
2 maraschino cherries (real ones – not the zombie cherries commonly found. To make them: add Maraschino liqueur to a sealable container of pitted cherries, let sit in fridge for about 2 weeks)
Modernist Old Fashioned on the Rock
Whisky gel
Thickened cherry juice
Spun sugar
Lemon zest
1 Ice cube
Whisky gel:
Whisky
3wt% 220-bloom strength gelatin
Thickened cherry juice:
Fresh squeezed cherry juice
0.3wt% 220-bloom strength gelatin
Spun sugar:
1 cup sugar
water as appropriate
The old fashioned is one of the cocktail greats, having been around in one form or another for over 200 years. Recently, it has been brought back into vogue by the television show Mad Men, although Don Draper, while period correct, prepares an Old Fashioned that can only be described as an abomination. For the inaugural edition of this column, we’ve decided to take this ancient cocktail (arguably the oldest cocktail actually) and update it with an infusion of cooking science and poncy nonsense.
Our Old Fashioned has been deconstructed into its component parts, texturally modified, and served on an ice cube to bring a new spin to “on the rocks.” The whisky gel is simple to prepare, especially if one has experience with its plebeian cousin, the jello shooter. Simply heat the desired amount of whisky in a pot, add gelatin, and allow it to cool. A nifty trick is to place saran wrap on top of the gel flush with the surface in order to prevent the formation of a gastronomically displeasing skin. People familiar with making non-alcohol gels will note that the gelatin content is rather high–alcohol destabilizes the majority of hydrocolloids including gelatin. However, unlike most hydrocolloids, gelatin can still form a stable hydrocolloid in alcohol, if you increase the amount used. Here we should note that whisky quality matters a lot in both the Traditional and the Modernist variants. An Old Fashioned is not a beverage that hides the taste of its base liquor under layers of mixers, so don’t use the bottom shelf rotgut. On the other hand, using a single malt would also be ill-advised on a university student budget. We recommend something along the lines of Forty Creek or Canadian Club Reserve – not the best, but also not the worst.
Thickened cherry juice is made the same way as the whisky gel, just with less gelatin as cherry juice is neither alcoholic (unless your cherries are old enough to start fermenting, which would be perturbing), nor is a solid texture desired.
Spun sugar is a fun trick for making your sweetened cocktails and desserts look particularly classy. To make spun sugar, heat up sugar in a pot with a bit of water, adding water whenever the sugar looks like it might dry out. Eventually, you want the sugar mixture to change to a deep golden/brown colour at which point you take a spoon and spin it out onto some sort of object in thin strands. Give it a second to harden and voilà – spun sugar.
For the cocktail, just place all of the ingredients on an ice cube in an aesthetically pleasing fashion and serve. Beware, the whisky gel readily slides on the ice cube so it can be difficult to keep together; thus, the beverage is best made in the same location in which it will imbibed.
Leave a Reply