This is the one, my all-time favorite cocktail, The Manhattan Cocktail. In last week's post, the Chauncey Cocktail served to show what could result from a strange pairing of spirits. In contrast, the recipe for a
First, you need to have something out of which to drink your drink. Now, there are great drinks that are served over ice in a tumbler -- the
Second, you need something to mix in, something to measure with, something to mix with, and something to keep the ice out of your drink. There isn't a need to get fancy here or spend a lot of money. I have a pint glass (that in which you'd be served a draught beer at a bar) that I got for a dollar. To measure, the best thing I've found is this little measuring cup from Oxo. And, please, do measure; proportions are very important, and measuring is critical to maintaining proper ratios. To stir, you can get a bar spoon, but I actually find it hard to stir with unless you turn it upside down, so I don't use it. What I do use is a glass swizzle stick that my wife had. I like it because it has a turtle on it, but that's optional. A chopstick would work well, too. Then you need something to hold back the ice when you pour the drink from the mixing glass into the cocktail glass. Here, I use a
Third, ice is very important to a good drink. The reason is that as you stir the cocktail, the ice melts and the water from this melt is an important ingredient in the finished drink. Thus, it is critical to use ice that is made from filtered water. Just use water from a Britta filter to fill your ice cube trays. Speaking of which, I like the big cubes produced by newly-available silicone ice cube trays. They're a pain to fill, but it's worth it -- and the cubes look great for drinks served on ice, e.g. an Old Fashioned.
Fourth, the booze. Using good but not great spirits is important. The cheap stuff will make your drinks taste like crap. But, on the other hand, I think it's a waste to use really high-end stuff in cocktails. For example, a really great bourbon has a lot of subtle factors, which, in a cocktail, are overwhelmed by the other ingredients and the temperature at which a cocktail is served. So, save your Pappy Van Winkle for drinking neat. For the whiskey, most people think it should be bourbon, but recently people have been catching on to the fact that when the Manhattan was invented in the latter nineteenth century it would have been made with rye whiskey.
We come to the bitters. Bitters are a cocktail flavoring made from a variety of herbs, spices, and exotic ingredients that are steeped in alcohol. They can have a variety of different flavor profiles, e.g. orange, lemon, celery, rhubarb, but when one mentions bitters without additional qualification, you're generally talking about aromatic bitters, i.e. those flavored with warm spices such as cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, etc. Basically, Christmas-time kinda stuff. The most popular -- and for many, many years only available -- brand is Angostura bitters, which you can get at most grocery stores. Here in
Finally, there's the problem of the cherry. Manhattans are traditionally garnished with either a cherry or a slice of orange peel. Don't use the commonly-available maraschino cherries, though. They're waxy, overly-sweet, and just plain crap. If you can find really high quality brandied cherries, they're good. I tend more often than not to just leave the garnish out entirely.
Alright, let's make that damn drink, already.
Your cocktail glass should be suitably chilled. Fill the mixing glass with ice. Now, I like to "season" my ice by adding ingredients in reverse order to their volume, so I start with two generous dashes of aromatic bitters. I like a lot of bitters, some don't, but they're wrong. Next, add 1 oz. of sweet vermouth, and 2 oz. of rye whiskey. Stir, stir, stir. Don't stir too strenuously, but just get the ice moving around the glass in a circle, gently. I like to stir for at least 30 seconds, sometimes even a minute. Again, to me, it's part of the relaxation that comes with a great cocktail. Dump the ice and water from the cocktail glass, and place it on a stable surface (not held in your hand), put the strainer over the mouth of the mixing glass, and strain into the cocktail glass. The drink should have a silken viscosity to it, it should glisten. Beautiful. Garnish with a cherry or orange peel if you want, but don't feel obliged to do so.
Most of these techniques and principles apply to making any cocktail that doesn't involve fruit juice, syrup, or egg white. Those cocktails should be shaken (wait until next week's post for that) because they're harder to combine. But for any cocktail that only involves spirits and wine, e.g. a martini, stirring is the way to go.
Drink up,
Alright, let's make that damn drink, already.
Your cocktail glass should be suitably chilled. Fill the mixing glass with ice. Now, I like to "season" my ice by adding ingredients in reverse order to their volume, so I start with two generous dashes of aromatic bitters. I like a lot of bitters, some don't, but they're wrong. Next, add 1 oz. of sweet vermouth, and 2 oz. of rye whiskey. Stir, stir, stir. Don't stir too strenuously, but just get the ice moving around the glass in a circle, gently. I like to stir for at least 30 seconds, sometimes even a minute. Again, to me, it's part of the relaxation that comes with a great cocktail. Dump the ice and water from the cocktail glass, and place it on a stable surface (not held in your hand), put the strainer over the mouth of the mixing glass, and strain into the cocktail glass. The drink should have a silken viscosity to it, it should glisten. Beautiful. Garnish with a cherry or orange peel if you want, but don't feel obliged to do so.
Most of these techniques and principles apply to making any cocktail that doesn't involve fruit juice, syrup, or egg white. Those cocktails should be shaken (wait until next week's post for that) because they're harder to combine. But for any cocktail that only involves spirits and wine, e.g. a martini, stirring is the way to go.
Drink up,
brandied cherries are fairly easy to make...and cherry season is coming up! Put some up in ball jars and you will be thanking the cocktail gods for the rest of the year....here's a good recipe, albeit with wine and not brandy:
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An excellent recommendation!
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