I usually don't add any sugar if I'm using soda because there's enough sugar in the soda already. But I will add sugar if I'm using club soda or water.
Old Fashioneds? Asking all Don Draper wannabes.
- Thread starter StubbleOfSteel
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I usually don't add any sugar if I'm using soda because there's enough sugar in the soda already. But I will add sugar if I'm using club soda or water.
Wow. Great thread. I would never in a million years have used brussel sprouts and Olf Fashioned (or any other drink) in the same sentence.
I would think these would be better with rye. Not as sweet as bourbon or brandy.
Sound like a Yankee thing.
I would think these would be better with rye. Not as sweet as bourbon or brandy.
Sound like a Yankee thing.
I use the suger cubes that I got to use with Absinthe, 1 or 2 depending on there size.
In goes A couple dashes of the bitters and a small spoon of the juice from the cherry jar to help moisten the suger for the muddle.
Smash the suger cubes, add a piece of orange peel and muddle the peel on the suger.
Add about half a shot of Bourbon/Whisky witch ever you prefer (currently my go to is Pendleton, have tried many, will try more, you should also) swirl or mix till suger desolves.
Add ice, another shot and a half or so of your chosen Bourbon/Whisky and drop in cherry. Slowly rotate ice in glass with finger to meld.
Enjoy with...... Cigar.......Sunset.........Pretty lady......... What ever you prefer!
In goes A couple dashes of the bitters and a small spoon of the juice from the cherry jar to help moisten the suger for the muddle.
Smash the suger cubes, add a piece of orange peel and muddle the peel on the suger.
Add about half a shot of Bourbon/Whisky witch ever you prefer (currently my go to is Pendleton, have tried many, will try more, you should also) swirl or mix till suger desolves.
Add ice, another shot and a half or so of your chosen Bourbon/Whisky and drop in cherry. Slowly rotate ice in glass with finger to meld.
Enjoy with...... Cigar.......Sunset.........Pretty lady......... What ever you prefer!
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My favorite place to get them, has them on tap. He just pulls a lever and it pours a pre-made old fashioned into the glass onto one giant ice cube and he bruises a twist of lemon and tosses it in with a cherry. No idea what's in it but it's good.
That is pretty much what I do, especially the cherry, or often cherries, in my case, after the muddle, and I use a piece of orange peel, pulp and all. I do not usually add any water much less any other kind of soda. Any bourbon or rye I otherwise like is great. We drink a fair amount of Evan Williams at my house, but Woodford is probably my favorite. I like Michter's rye.
ONE sugar cube (plenty sweet)
Two or three dashes of Angostura
Muddle with a splash or two of water until the cube is dissolved
Add a generous shot of your favorite mixing whiskey. No need to use your best sipping stuff here, the higher quality value pours fill the bill. For bourbon, I prefer a high rye recipe like Old Forester or Old Grandad. If you prefer a sweeter style, Evan Williams (esp. the White label 100) is great, or Old Fitz 1849 for you wheater fans. The "original" Old Fashioned used (once brandy became scarce due to phyloxerra in France) Rye, so for you traditionalists, go for Old Overholt, Dickel Rye or, if you're feeling a little more flush, Rittenhouse BIB. All work well.
Squeeze a twist of orange peel over the glass to release the essential oils. DISCARD the peel. Don't put it in the glass. Don't add a maraschino cherry, or any other fruits or vegetables. With all due respect, they don't belong in an Old Fashioned. It's whiskey, water, bitters and orange zest essence. Period. Adding other stuff can certainly make a nice drink, but, to me, it's not an Old Fashioned.
Add ice, and enjoy one of the world's best cocktails.
Two or three dashes of Angostura
Muddle with a splash or two of water until the cube is dissolved
Add a generous shot of your favorite mixing whiskey. No need to use your best sipping stuff here, the higher quality value pours fill the bill. For bourbon, I prefer a high rye recipe like Old Forester or Old Grandad. If you prefer a sweeter style, Evan Williams (esp. the White label 100) is great, or Old Fitz 1849 for you wheater fans. The "original" Old Fashioned used (once brandy became scarce due to phyloxerra in France) Rye, so for you traditionalists, go for Old Overholt, Dickel Rye or, if you're feeling a little more flush, Rittenhouse BIB. All work well.
Squeeze a twist of orange peel over the glass to release the essential oils. DISCARD the peel. Don't put it in the glass. Don't add a maraschino cherry, or any other fruits or vegetables. With all due respect, they don't belong in an Old Fashioned. It's whiskey, water, bitters and orange zest essence. Period. Adding other stuff can certainly make a nice drink, but, to me, it's not an Old Fashioned.
Add ice, and enjoy one of the world's best cocktails.
My wife is from Wisconsin and brandy Old Fashions were her folks drink of choice. Way to sweet for me but her Dad made a wonderful Manhattan. Of course growing up in the deep South we didn't have basements which I learned was really a euphemism for the families private bar and tavern. Just like deer camp has nothing to do with hunting but is more about drinking all night in a shack in the woods. Ice fishing also seems to evolved more drinking than fishing.
I am not saying this about you specifically, but the "real" Old Fashioned you are describing is a drink that was virtually non-existent for almost a century until hipsters "discovered" it roughly a decade or so ago. So now they can tell people what a "real" Old Fashioned is if they make it any differently. I am not calling you a hipster, or in any way doubting your authenticity, and while there are no doubt many who continued to make them this way throughout the decades since Prohibition, it would have been extremely rare or unpopular. For example, on the show Mad Men they show Don Draper, the character who inspired this thread, making his Old Fashioned with muddled cherries, orange slices and club soda, which is very accurate to the era, and a testament to the show, since this is how most people drank them throughout the 20th century.
I have been ice fishing many times in my life. And I don't even remember if I ever caught one fish. But I drank lots of beer. It's really not fun unless you're bombed. I don't go any more.
anything straight or on rocks.
1-2tsp of sugar
bitters to Saturate sugar (I use angostura)
2-3 Fabbri amarena cherries (from Italy) *very important to use these cherries, call me picky but it's the best sweetness and flavor blend I've ever had*
1 tsp of the cherry juice
orange slice (peel pulp and all)
muddle together with muddler (or a fork if you're not that fancy
)
1 cube of ice
pour in 1-2 oz woodford reserve
top off with 1/2 tonic and 1/2 Sprite/7up
Add a twist of orange peel, 1 more cherry, mix and enjoy!!!!
bitters to Saturate sugar (I use angostura)
2-3 Fabbri amarena cherries (from Italy) *very important to use these cherries, call me picky but it's the best sweetness and flavor blend I've ever had*
1 tsp of the cherry juice
orange slice (peel pulp and all)
muddle together with muddler (or a fork if you're not that fancy
)1 cube of ice
pour in 1-2 oz woodford reserve
top off with 1/2 tonic and 1/2 Sprite/7up
Add a twist of orange peel, 1 more cherry, mix and enjoy!!!!
I make a Smokey Old Fashioned
Corsair Triple Smoke Whiskey
Angostura Bitters
Maple Syrup
Orange Peel
Corsair Triple Smoke Whiskey
Angostura Bitters
Maple Syrup
Orange Peel
OK. I make no claim that my recipe is the "real" Old Fashioned (since I don't know what that might be, if indeed there is such a thing). It's just the version that I prefer, so I wanted to share it with others here, as suggested by the OP. I'm curious what facts you rely on for your assertion that this drink was "non-existent" for almost a century. It's news to me that this drink was just "discovered" in the last decade, since I've been making and enjoying this version for nearly 40 years. And I learned it from guys that had been making it for a long time before that.
You are right about one thing: I'm definitely no hipster
OK. I make no claim that my recipe is the "real" Old Fashioned (since I don't know what that might be, if indeed there is such a thing). It's just the version that I prefer, so I wanted to share it with others here, as suggested by the OP. I'm curious what facts you rely on for your assertion that this drink was "non-existent" for almost a century. It's news to me that this drink was just "discovered" in the last decade, since I've been making and enjoying this version for nearly 40 years. And I learned it from guys that had been making it for a long time before that.
You are right about one thing: I'm definitely no hipster
Just based on my own experience, about 10 years ago no bartender I encountered outside of Wisconsin knew how to make an Old Fashioned, mostly in my travels to places like Chicago and New York. Or I would have to tell them how to make it if they were kind enough to bother.
I dug up this article http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/21/d...tail-of-choice.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&_r=1& which correlates with my own experience. As you'll read, there's been an Old Fashioned revival as of late, and it appears they look down on anyone who makes it differently from the "traditional" way. The irony is that the starters of this trend probably had to look it up in a book, not knowing how to make it from experience. (Kind of like the douchebags who say you can't order a Martini shaken-not-stirred like 007, because a real Martini is stirred.)
Last spring in Chicago I ordered one and the bartender didn't skip a beat. He put a couple of shots of bourbon and bitters on ice with some sugar. It was a young bartender. I asked for a cherry and to top it off with club soda, and I could tell he was annoyed. I don't need some jack *** who didn't even know what the drink was 5 years ago telling me how they're made. As I stated in an earlier thread, adding cherries, oranges and soda was started in Prohibition. This tradition carried over after Prohibition, and is how most people drank them for decades when it was still a popular drink. The "traditional" Old Fashioned became an obscure drink, except for old timers and cocktail enthusiasts/purists. As is stated in the article, Esquire's Cocktail Guide from 1956 calls for cherries and orange slices to be placed in the drink and topped off with soda. Then it went away completely sometime in the 70's. The only place it stayed popular after the 60's and 70's was in Wisconsin and other small pockets of the Midwest. As the article states, and from my own experience, anywhere else it was virtually unheard of.
Long story short, I don't need some young, hipster bar in Manhattan like the one in the article telling me the "right" way to make an Old Fashioned when they didn't even know it existed a few years ago and had to look it up in some book.
Well, I guess that makes me an old timer. Cool.
I correlate that to the same people who serve me a glass of cold gin, when I ask for a martini. Martinis are supposed to have vermouth and normally did until the 70s and 80s. There's nothing wrong with plain gin -- but don't call it a Martini -- it's a glass of gin with an olive. (and there would be nothing wrong with ordering and enjoying such a thing.)
I even went to a highly rated martini bar once, and they didn't even STOCK dry vermouth.
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I correlate that to the same people who serve me a glass of cold gin, when I ask for a martini. Martinis are supposed to have vermouth and normally did until the 70s and 80s. There's nothing wrong with plain gin -- but don't call it a Martini -- it's a glass of gin with an olive. (and there would be nothing wrong with ordering and enjoying such a thing.)
I even went to a highly rated martini bar once, and they didn't even STOCK dry vermouth.
I have to say I would be pretty perplexed if I ordered a Martini and it was just straight gin... Is that the "traditional" way? I might like to try it. I'm sure the olive adds some flavor. I have no problem with a "traditional" Martini or a "traditional" Old Fashioned. I just don't care for some of the snobbery that comes along with it from some.
I'm with you until you get to the orange peel--the way I've always made an Old Fashioned stops with the sugar cube, bitters, a couple of drops of water and whiskey. That's the way I learned how to make it many moons ago, and that's how I make it for myself. I'm not adverse to dropping a cherry in it if that's how someone wants it, but my kids always eat all the ones I have in the fridge faster than I can replace them.
On the other hand, if I order a drink at a bar, I'm happy to see what the bartender comes up with. When I was younger, the bartenders at the places I usually went to were cantankerous old codgers with veiny noses and bloodshot eyes. They seemed like they'd been tending bar since the Great Depression and they poured heavy with no frills. Then, there was a time that I no longer want to remember when everything came out of a blender in strange colors. Now, they're either like mad scientists with bottle after bottle of herbal infusions, tanks of gas and cask aged cocktails, or they are twirling their waxed mustaches as if they are waiting for John L. Sullivan to stop in for a snort. Even so, I think it's pretty interesting to see the kinds of drinks that they serve. Definitely a greater level of attention to detail that I can remember in many years. The barista mentality has overtaken bartending and I think it's a good thing.
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