Building up your cocktail repertoire is made easy with the Whiskey Sour. Sure to be a crowd pleaser, it would have to be one of the quickest and tastiest cocktails to whip up, be it at the end of a long working day or for a group of mates.
Dating back to around the 1870s, a few variations have popped up since (I’ve included a two below). Having come across a few recipes that included an egg white, I hadn’t tried this particular variation this in the past so naturally, in the name of research, I had to make it and taste it for myself.
I can say I was pleasantly surprised with this creamy kick; it really did not have that raw eggy sensation sitting at the back of your throat that I was expecting; you have to give this one a go.
The first recipe below is via the gents from GQ Australia and is for those a little more exploratory in the savour sector with including a shaken egg white. I’ve expanded a little on some parts of this dapper, sweet and sour fusion following my self initiated cocktail class.
RECIPE 1
Ingredients:
60ml of your finest whiskey.
30ml of freshly squeezed lemon juice (one good sized lemon).
Lemon peel for garnish.
15ml of sugar syrup/maple syrup.
(Add 30ml of sugar syrup if opting out of the egg white)
1 egg white (Optional).
Method:
No one wants a squashed lemon peel garnish, so I thought it be best to peel the skin off a lemon before you squeeze its juices.
Pour 60ml of whisky into your cocktail shaker.
30ml of freshly squeezed lemon juice.
Add 15ml of sugar syrup (or maple syrup) into a cocktail shaker.
Separate out one egg white and add to mixture.
Fill a cocktail shaker with ice cubes (or at least 6-7 ice cubes) and shake vigorously for 20 seconds. The more you shake, the more the egg white gets broken down and blended into all of the ingredients. This also helps to build the ‘fancy foam’ at the top of the drink once poured into your glass.
Now pour mixture into your whiskey tumbler or martini glass and let sit for about 10-15 seconds. You’ll notice the foam which is the egg white begins to rise to the top and create a nice thick layer. Add your lemon peel to garnish and you’re ready for consumption.
RECIPE 2
Flicking through a few other recipes pages for a Whiskey Sour and recipe number two via jamesonwhiskey.com is a more traditional version being that of the 19th Century way.
Ingredients:
60ml of Jameson Irish Whiskey.
4 dashes freshly-squeezed lemon juice.
1 bar spoon of granulated sugar.
1 splash sparkling water.
Method:
Dissolve the sugar with lemon juice and sparkling water in a mixing glass.
Add whiskey and fill with ice.
Stir well.
Strain into a sour glass.
Garnish with a cherry.
This method lets the whiskey do the talking.
Enjoy and stay dapper.
Robbie – Dapper Lounge
BEHIND THE BEVERAGE
Now for a cocktail that’s been around for 100 years, you’d expect there to be a little tale on how this beverage came about. Digging around I came across this interesting tale by the gents at monkeyshoulder.com that say “the whisky sour is a story of threes. The first three is the number of ingredients: whisky, lemon and sugar. Next, we have a trio of stories regarding the first mention of the drink. Let’s hop back 300 years and see where it all started.
In the 1700s the British Royal Navy realised that a lemon or lime a day, kept the scurvy away. The first man to study the importance of citrus fruit in preventing the illness, James Lind, was Scottish. Lind told the navy to give lemon or lime juice to its sailors (the reason Brits are still known to some as ‘limeys’). Of course, a lemon by itself is utterly disgusting, so the sailors, being sailors, mixed in the fruit juice with grog (weak beer and rum). The mix of lemon or lime juice with an alcoholic drink later became known as the ‘Sour’.
This drink drifted inland and at some point, it was realised that by replacing rum, with whisky and adding a little sugar to soften the sourness you had a pretty incredible drink. So when exactly was it born?
Let’s go back to the sea! It’s 1872 and Elliot Stubb, a steward of the ship Sunshine, invented a drink in a bar in Iquique (which is now in Chile, but was then in Peru). The drink he created would change the world forever…it is the Whisky Sour! The only problem with this theory is that the drink was mentioned in a Wisconsin newspaper two years earlier. The paper in question was The Waukesha Plaindealer and the story was published on January 4th 1870. So that was the first mention of the drink? No, wrong again! Further research showed that it was featured in the most important book in cocktail history, Jerry Thomas’ 1862 ‘How to Mix Drinks: The Bon-vivant’s Companion’ (not to be confused with the ‘Bond villain’s companion’, which is a large white cat). Thomas’ Sour was a little different from the modern style and was served in a wine glass with shaved ice (maybe this is worth a try?).
We can see that the cocktail was around since at least 1862, but with such simple ingredients, it’s likely that it had been around considerably longer.
Sour power
The drink most commonly associated with Ernest Hemingway is the Mojito, but at least one bartender has described the writer’s love of whisky sours. Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald first met at the Dingo Bar, Montparnasse, Paris in 1925. These two titans of 20th Century literature kept the candle burning at both ends with a steady supply of Whisky Sours. This was an appropriate drink for Hemingway, as it is as pared down, refreshing and action-packed as his writing style.
The whisky sour has since become a classic cocktail and today is served in bars all around the world. We’ll leave the last word to the comedian Dorian Crook, who noted that the only three things you need for a perfect night are “a whisky sour, a meteor shower and a cab that arrives before you put your hand out.”
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