Made the Manhattan tonight. First time using Rye as I’ve always used Bourbon in Manhattans and Old Fashioneds. Good stuff! My observations 1) I need better ice 2) I need a true mixing glass 3) my stirring technique sucks. Things to work on. Thanks!
Really enjoying the content so far. I recently started making cocktails and have been using my stainless steel shaker to stir in. Curious if there’s any difference between using this vs. a glass?
Like some others on here, I'm upping my technique here and there to make my favorite cocktails as good as they can be, consistently. Tonight I paid particular attention to the stirring, choosing equal size cubes, placing them at the bottom of mixer, stacked just above the liquor, and stirring on the outer edge. I made a Manhattan variant called La Louisiana, which contains two types of Rye, benedictine, sweet vermouth, bitters, and absinthe. I used Rittenhouse on your recommendation. Maybe it's the recipe or maybe it's the new technique, (or maybe it's the Rittenhouse!) but it all seemed to make a difference. It turned out great.
Batching is a whole separate newsletter! But the short version is that most stirred recipes can scale up - so you could, for example, make a 24 ounce Manhattan that would contain eight three-ounce drinks. But you need to figure out whether you're going to dilute in the batch, or pour and chill/dilute each drink as you go. Shaken drinks are a bit more difficult to batch well, since ideally you want to aerate each one before serving.
I've been wondering about batching shaken drinks too. Specifically mai tais mostly as a way to use up the orgeat I make... Would the orgeat in a batched drink survive longer storage in the fridge/freezer? I'm thinking mix and store and shake with ice before serving. But I'll wait for the article on batching
Going to make another thanksgiving sour tonight, as I still have some of the infused brandy leftover. The other autumn themed old fashioned that I've been making recently is a bourbon based one with apple blossom bitters
I tried a mezcal old-fashioned, using the last of the damiana liqueur I was gifted as the sugar. Not bad, but I probably should have used a bit more tequila relative to the mezcal.
I noticed that your Old Fashioned variants are stirred rather than built in the glass. Any particular reason why? I've generally always built in the glass like Sasha Petraske's recipes call for in Regarding Cocktails, but Jeffrey Morgenthaler in The Bar Book calls for stirring also.
I typically prefer stirring Old Fashioneds because I think it makes dilution control simpler and more consistent across drinks. It's not that you can't make OFs work as built drinks, and I've had some good ones. I will happily endorse built drinks for anyone who wants to spend time getting that technique down. But stirring the same way, every time, with the same (or nearly the same) amount of ice, means that when you strain the drink into the glass, you should have a really good idea of how diluted it is at the moment it's served. It's a little like using syrup vs. a sugar cube; you can make it work with a sugar cube, but the syrup gives you speed and consistency.
Made the Manhattan tonight. First time using Rye as I’ve always used Bourbon in Manhattans and Old Fashioneds. Good stuff! My observations 1) I need better ice 2) I need a true mixing glass 3) my stirring technique sucks. Things to work on. Thanks!
Your stirring technique doesn't suck - it just needs more practice. It took me a little while to figure it out, but now I barely think about it.
Really enjoying the content so far. I recently started making cocktails and have been using my stainless steel shaker to stir in. Curious if there’s any difference between using this vs. a glass?
Like some others on here, I'm upping my technique here and there to make my favorite cocktails as good as they can be, consistently. Tonight I paid particular attention to the stirring, choosing equal size cubes, placing them at the bottom of mixer, stacked just above the liquor, and stirring on the outer edge. I made a Manhattan variant called La Louisiana, which contains two types of Rye, benedictine, sweet vermouth, bitters, and absinthe. I used Rittenhouse on your recommendation. Maybe it's the recipe or maybe it's the new technique, (or maybe it's the Rittenhouse!) but it all seemed to make a difference. It turned out great.
You should say something about making in batches. People could die of sobriety by the time you followed these directions four times.
Batching is a whole separate newsletter! But the short version is that most stirred recipes can scale up - so you could, for example, make a 24 ounce Manhattan that would contain eight three-ounce drinks. But you need to figure out whether you're going to dilute in the batch, or pour and chill/dilute each drink as you go. Shaken drinks are a bit more difficult to batch well, since ideally you want to aerate each one before serving.
I've been wondering about batching shaken drinks too. Specifically mai tais mostly as a way to use up the orgeat I make... Would the orgeat in a batched drink survive longer storage in the fridge/freezer? I'm thinking mix and store and shake with ice before serving. But I'll wait for the article on batching
Going to make another thanksgiving sour tonight, as I still have some of the infused brandy leftover. The other autumn themed old fashioned that I've been making recently is a bourbon based one with apple blossom bitters
Yes! Apple bitters can be delicious, especially this time of year.
I tried a mezcal old-fashioned, using the last of the damiana liqueur I was gifted as the sugar. Not bad, but I probably should have used a bit more tequila relative to the mezcal.
Mezcal OFs are tricky, but these experiments are often useful even if they don't fully work.
I noticed that your Old Fashioned variants are stirred rather than built in the glass. Any particular reason why? I've generally always built in the glass like Sasha Petraske's recipes call for in Regarding Cocktails, but Jeffrey Morgenthaler in The Bar Book calls for stirring also.
I typically prefer stirring Old Fashioneds because I think it makes dilution control simpler and more consistent across drinks. It's not that you can't make OFs work as built drinks, and I've had some good ones. I will happily endorse built drinks for anyone who wants to spend time getting that technique down. But stirring the same way, every time, with the same (or nearly the same) amount of ice, means that when you strain the drink into the glass, you should have a really good idea of how diluted it is at the moment it's served. It's a little like using syrup vs. a sugar cube; you can make it work with a sugar cube, but the syrup gives you speed and consistency.