Latest Drink Recipe
In my opinion, one of the greatest triumphs of the cocktail renaissance is the rediscovery of the classic Old Fashioned. I’ve often spoken of how at some point after the repeal of Prohibition, the Old Fashioned became lost and possibly confused with a long-forgotten drink called a Smash (basically a tarted-up Mint Julep covered in fruit), a mere husk of its former, glorious self.
For decades, bartenders just like me served a limp, weak concoction consisting of a half-muddled sugar cube, a mashed-up neon red cherry and orange, a splash of whiskey, and some soda water drowning the results.
With a little luck, and a lot of hard work, that’s all changed with the renewed interest in classic cocktails. Now at any given night at my bar you can find literally a dozen people sipping on two ounces bourbon touched with a teaspoon of sugar and two dashes of bitters, garnished with a simple orange twist over a couple big ice cubes.
But don’t try to pull that bullshit with the good people of the Great State of Wisconsin, where the Brandy Old Fashioned rules supreme. It’s not the same drink as above, it just shares a name. And if you make it right, really right, it’s a damn delicious cocktail and worthy of examination.
Being located in a hotel, we’re used to serving folks from all over the world. And the first time I witnessed a guest from Wisconsin stare blankly as one of my bartenders handed over two ounces of Cognac touched with a teaspoon of sugar and two dashes of bitters and garnished with a simple orange twist over a couple big ice cubes, I knew some further training was in order.
So in the name of making cocktails – all cocktails – with as much of our hearts as we can offer, I present to you what I believe to be the perfect Brandy Old Fashioned… Wisconsin-style.
I start with an old fashioned glass I’ve chilled in the freezer. Call it a tumbler, call it a double rocks glass, or call it a bucket, it’s a glass you’re familiar with. To that I add two dashes of Angostura bitters and a teaspoon of sugar. If I’m in a hurry I use a 2:1 simple syrup, but if I’m going to spend some time, I use a sugar cube. The sugar cube is preferable here because it’s going to add some friction to the muddling we’re about to do. Brace yourselves, cocktail “nerds”.
Next I’ll take a thick-cut orange wedge, and a cherry. The usual suspect here is a grocery store maraschino cherry, but I always choose a brandied Amarena cherry. Remember, you’re going to get out what you put in, so a quality cherry is going to make the drink that much better.
I muddle the sugar, bitters, orange wedge and cherry into a thick paste, careful not to touch the orange peel too much as it’ll bring unwanted bitterness to the party – just work around the peel and pulverize that orange meat.
Your standard Brandy Old Fashioned brandy of choice is Korbel: cheap California brandy. Considering the hundreds of thousands of cases they ship to Wisconsin every year, it might be considered sacrosanct to use anything else. But if you want to do this right, really right, then do yourself a favor and use some good Cognac. I have my preferred brandy, you have yours.
At this point your typical Wisconsinite barkeep is going to add ice and finish the drink in one of two main ways: sweet or sour. Those who take it sweet will ask for a splash of Sprite or 7-Up, those who take it sour get a dose of Collins Mix or Squirt. To me, it’s just a way of watering down the drink, so I leave out the soda and take a more… cocktail-y method.
Crushed ice is a must for me whenever I whip up a Brandy Old Fashioned. I always skip the soda and let the tiny shards of ice do the work, taming those strong, sweet flavors and turning this into a drink you can sip slowly.
As for a garnish, most will throw a “flag” of an orange wedge and a cherry spiked through with a wooden toothpick, but my take here is that those things are already in the drink, so I skip ‘em. Besides, how pretty does that look without the goofy fruit salad perched over the top?
You know, it’s something to enjoy sipping on while you cook up some bratwurst and onions in a boiling kettle of beer before everyone comes over to watch the Packers game. Drink accordingly.
Brandy Old Fashioned
1 sugar cube or 1 tsp 2:1 simple syrup
2 dashes Angostura bitters
1 orange wedge
1 cherry, preferably Amarena or Maraska
2 oz brandy or Cognac
In a chilled old fashioned glass, muddle the sugar, bitters, orange wedge and cherry into a thick paste, careful not to work the orange peel. Add brandy or Cognac, stir, and fill glass with crushed ice and serve.
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About Me
My name is Jeff Morgenthaler and I'm the bar manager at Clyde Common in Portland, Oregon.
I've been tending bar since 1996 and writing about it since 2004. I started tending bar while getting my degree in Interior Architecture, and slowly I came to the conclusion that bartending was what I really loved, and that I might as well drop everything and focus on being a professional bartender. Over the years I have strived, both behind the bar and with this website, to elevate the experience of having a drink from something mundane to something more culinary.
The writing I do here is intended as a work in progress. My recipes are like my opinions: they are constantly being revised and refined as I work them through my mind and my fingers. Comments and participation are encouraged, so please don't feel the need to tread lightly here.
06 Dec 2006 at 2:41 PM 1. Mad Jack
Nice site.
The term ‘bruise the gin’ came about as a sort of joke. Amatuer bartenders will shake the living daylights out of everything in sight, and rather than launch into a long explanation involving liquor, water, ice and ice fragments, the client would simply state that ‘you’ll bruise the gin’.
This worked pretty well until Hollywood came along with James Bond and specified ’shaken, not stirred’. I object with the old standard about bruises and gin.
You’re quite right about the vermouth. Few people know that good vermouth has a nice flavor to it. The trouble is that the MD 20-20 that passes for vermouth in most bars does nothing to compliment the rocket fuel that passes for gin. Order top shelf or nothing, I say.
25 Jan 2007 at 1:13 PM 2. RC Hardin
I’ve read in a couple of places that “bruising” the gin refers to the fact that shaking a martini introduces air bubbles into the cocktail, leaving it temporarily cloudy. While I don’t know if that’s the true origin of the term, I find it interesting that many who naysay the term take it so literally. I’ve read so many comments along the lines of “you can’t bruise gin — it’s liquid, not fruit” and so forth. It is so obviously a metaphorical expression that any attempt to take it literally carries an air of reactionary dismissiveness.
24 Mar 2007 at 6:27 PM 3. Charles P
Here here! I simply love a good martini (that would be gin) and a good martini is not complete without a portion of quality vermouth (4 to 1 is my preference also).
23 Jun 2007 at 12:49 PM 4. Chip and Andy
But when do you add the sour apple?
OK, bad joke. But many discussions with my work buddies eventually drift to the martini (I work for goverment, we drink a lot). While I prefer my martini at about 5 to 1 with a top-shelf gin, every single one of my work buddies insists that the Martini Fad has been around since the end of prohibition and that the Sour-Apple martini has been around since forever.
Maybe we can get an Act of Congress or a Presidential Decree reclaiming the Martini as a specific recipe and not as a catagory of other drinks and glasses.
23 Jun 2007 at 12:58 PM 5. Jeffrey
Well, Chip and Andy, the Bacardi Rum company won a court case in 1936 that stipulated that only Bacardi Rum could be used in the Bacardi Cocktail, so maybe you’re on to something!
13 Jul 2007 at 4:15 PM 6. Jeffrey Morgenthaler » Dirty, Dirty Sue
[...] A. Why would someone send me, of all people, a martini mix? B. Who needs a dirty martini mix anyway? It’s just olive juice and gin, right? [...]
06 Aug 2007 at 4:13 PM 7. Beak
For me the term “bruising the gin” has less to do with flavor and more with texture. I want a crystal clear pour into my choicest glass with little to NO shards of ice. If I wanted a slurpee then I’d go to 7-11, but for now I want a chilled dry gin martini. Yum.
17 Nov 2007 at 5:38 PM 8. Kevin Erskine
I always shake martinis. I don’t believe the “bruising” myth.
What dilutes a martini is adding too little ice to the shaker…
The shaker should be filled to the brim with good quality large cubes…not crappy, watery, melty little shards…
I also prefer a gin martini.
I often confuse bartenders when asking for a “wet” martini…and it usually results in their fucking it up.
Also just as adding an onion turns a “martini” into a “gibson” I think the bartenders of the world should unite and decide that a “dry vodka martini” is just a cold glass of vodka . . . and not a martini at all.
My $0.02.
13 Jan 2008 at 9:29 AM 9. Jeanne
Hi, recently while cleanning out a seldom used closet I found 2 gallon sizes bottles of Baileys Irish Cream with the dates April 95 & April 99 UNOPENED. There was also a bottle April 88 that was open–which I poured down the sink, it did smell ok. Also in that box there is a bottle of Kahlua –OPENED–I can’t find a date but it must be from the same era as the Baileys. My question is —are these bottles ok to drink? Hard to believe these went unnoticed for so long–but they were in a box with several unused comforters on top.Thank you in advance for any help you can give me. Jeanne
16 Feb 2008 at 9:07 AM 10. The Pegu Blog
[...] Pegu blogger to argue with this, especially since I don’t drink Gin Martinis? I’ll let Jeffrey Morganthaler take a crack at it. When it comes to Martinis, you can choose for yourself between modern bartender [...]
21 Dec 2008 at 10:17 PM 11. Joe from Dover
My wife saw this on a cooking show and we’ve been at it for three years now: .5l bottles filled with your desired proportion — in the freezer waiting for you next to it’s glass(es). The only problem? Don’t try to enjoy a martini out again, ever. Even the best bartender can’t match what my wife calls “instant” Martinis and Manhattans. And I may be stupid here, but why does stirring leave behind less water than shaking? I always liked the settling bubbles (a la Guinness)in the shaken version. Use different colored bottles for your different gins. Whoever can name their gin gets seconds!
01 Feb 2009 at 1:27 PM 12. dshenaut
There is a noticeable difference in mouth feel when you gently stir spirits to proper chill and dilution. This seems to bind the water to the out side of the spirits and causes a rounded out almost oily texture that washes down smooth. When a drink is shaken (it seems to me) the binding molecules are split apart by the water. I don’t know a simple way to describe this to a customer so I find myself using the term” bruised.” However, I will think twice next time I say it.
I have a few irritations to add:
1)Olive brine is not juice.
2)Bar towels are not “rags”.
3) Saying “I don’t know” is better than BS-ing your way through a shift. Don’t make up a fact like Black Maple Hill is aged in maple barrels or Mezcal gets it smokey profile from some super-charring technique used only in “mexican oak” barrels. If you don’t know find out-please don’t lie.
4) Sell vermouth and try a dash of bitters- guide your customer’s taste to sophistication.
18 Apr 2010 at 7:03 AM 13. Kakunka
Hmmm…..
As to the lady with the aged cordials. . . Bottled alcohols will have an indefinite shelf life. Certainly, the Kahlua will be fine.
Baileys can suffer from “curdling” or settling of the cream, which may affect the taste. Try shaking it to restore the cream to an emulsion. None of it can harm you.
As to shaking a Martini. If you want to, well, knock yourself out.
Processes which can affect flavor with shaking include: Induction of more dissolved gasses (from the air) into the mix. Emulsion of the oils in the water. Out gassing of volatile oil flavoring components.
All of these can change the mouth “feel”, and the perceived flavor.
As to whether bar “towels” are bar “rags”. . . I think that is best left to observation, and opinion of the observer.
K.
01 Aug 2010 at 7:29 AM 14. Sebastian
Jeffrey, I really like this site – so much so, that from time to time I start reading it all over again from the beginning. And every time I’m confused by what you say about metal shakers chilling a drink better than glass. That contradicts everything I ever learned about physics. Once you put ice in the shaker, the inside of the shaker will be colder than the outside. Heat cannot be transferred from a cold place to a warm place (at least not in such a simple setup), so there is no way the metal could conduct heat away from the cold cocktail inside the shaker to the warmer surroundings. It will always be the other way around. So in order to really chill a drink as much as possible, shouldn’t one use a shaker which is as little heat-conductive as possible, in order to minimize the amount of energy that will be transferred into the drink?
27 Aug 2011 at 8:39 AM 15. prufrock
We are pretty much in sync on this subject; I’ve felt like a voice in the wilderness for years making the case for respecting the historical integrity of the Martini, and grind my teeth when having to see a “Martini Menu.”
When I was a lad in the 70s and started bartending, there was a grumpy old guy who came into the bar every day to sip on a Calvert and water, no ice, and smoke some Camels. The bar owner and senior bartenders told me to listen up if he ever gave any advice about the business, as the old guy had spent his work life in Manhattan, working at venues like 21 and the Algonquin. One day, he grunted “Lemme tell ya how to make a Martini.”
Back in the 70s, and through the 80s the funny, cool shit to do was to try to find the way to the driest Martini, so I would do things like use an atomiser, or write “vermouth” in small letters on the bev-nap, or call the guy at the bar on the house phone and whisper “vermouth” into the glass via the phone. Clever, fun, and ultimately the wrong idea. The old guy was right when he said that the Martini is a crafted recipe, and vermouth is an important ingredient. “Any dumbfuck can chill a glass of vodka, but a Martini needs to be well made. Use plenty of vermouth.” I have to agree with everything he told me; I’ve been making his “New York Martini” for over 30 years in places from Beijing to LA to New York to Glasgow to Prague to Istanbul and many points in between, and everywhere I have made it people have said, “This is the best Martini I have ever had.” I owe it to that old dude and that particular afternoon.
I diverge from your point regarding metal vs glass because I believe that one’s hand draws the cold more easily from the metal than from a chilled mixing glass. Meh. Big woop. Stir it. And though I have been curmudgeonly proselytising for years– especially in the 90s– I do say that cocktails are good, and I am happy to make something that is enjoyed, (and reordered especially) no matter what is in it. It IS a business, after all. Just don’t call it a “martini.”