Warren Bobrow - Whiskey Cocktails: Rediscovered Classics and Contemporary Craft Drinks Using the Worlds Most Popular Spirit

Rediscovered Classics and Contemporary Craft Drinks Using the Worlds Most Popular Spirit

WARREN BOBROW

To Fred Young, who has always encouraged me to follow my dreams wherever they take me.

2014 Fair Winds Press

Text 2014 Warren Bobrow

First published in the USA in 2014 by

Fair Winds Press, a member of

Quarto Publishing Group USA Inc.

100 Cummings Center

Suite 406-L

Beverly, MA 01915-6101

www.fairwindspress.com

Visit www.QuarrySPOON.com and help us celebrate food and culture one spoonful at a time!

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized, in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, without prior permission in writing from the publisher.

Digital edition published in 2014

Digital edition: 978-1-62788-183-8
Hardcover edition: 978-1-59233-639-5

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data available

Cover and book design by Jason Tselentis

Photography by Glen Scott Photography: except pages 18 (Natallya Hora/Shutterstock.com), 24 courtesy of the author, 46, and 128 (both Shutterstock.com).

Photo Styling by Jen Beauchesne

Too much of anything is bad, but too much good whiskey is barely enough.

Mark Twain

Theres something inherently masculine about a glass of whiskey. Nothing compares to the feeling of a cut crystal old-fashioned glass in your hand. Whiskey is a drink that says Im the master (or mistress) of my universe. The liquid amber is like testosterone itselfpotent, sexy, powerful.

During Prohibition in the United States, all alcohol sales were banned and whiskey went underground. The enterprising took to distilling at night when darkness hid the smoke from the stills creating the whiskey we know as moonshine. Whiskey could also be prescribed as a medicinal by a physician and sold through licensed pharmacies.

Modern times have made whiskey much more readily available. This means we can put the services of Warren Bobrow to good use.

Warren has been crafting fresh cocktails for Beekman1802.com for years, and we are thrilled that he is expanding his library of books (and our cocktail vocabulary) in this potent new collection of recipes.

Brent Ridge + Josh Kilmer-Purcell

Founders, Beekman 1802

Introduction

The history of whiskey is a long and venerable one, and Ireland and Scotland are its ancestral homes. In fact, the word whiskey is derived from the Scots-Gaelic phrase uisge beatha, or water of life. (In some cases, of course, the water of life has had the opposite effect: One medieval Irish annal ascribes the death of a chieftain to overindulgence in the auld aqua vitae.) Over hundreds of years, uisge beatha eventually evolved into the word whisky. Note the spelling: For reasons mostly lost to history, the Scottish still spell the world without the e, while in the United States, whiskey retains that missing e. Meanwhile, tipplers in Japan, India, and Canada spell the word sans e, while the Irish spelling, like the American one, favors that elusive e. So which spelling is correct?

Both, naturally. To butcher the words of the great Bard, Shakespeare (perhaps he was a whiskey drinker when he wasnt penning poems and plays?), whiskey by any other name would taste aswell, perhaps not sweet, but certainly as smooth, rich, and heady. Today, whiskey is enjoyed by imbibers the world overnot least in the United States, where its been part of the fabric of American life since the country was young.

Back in the frontier days, whiskey was usually quickly distilled using ryeor, in rare cases, cornand then served up to eager drinkers within a few hours of fabrication. These thirsty crowds would have consumed their precious portions of the water of life in makeshift, less-than-comfortable bars, and there would have been very little, if any, embellishment to whiskey drinks during these primitive days. After all, at that time, whiskey was not a drink for polite company.

Whiskey was customarily served to drinkers without ice in a small two- or three-ounce shot glass. Cool water, or perhaps a lukewarm beer, would be served with the whiskey, but only on the side, so that the liquor would retain its powerful clout. (Whiskey, in Americas early days, was not meant to be pleasurable: it was probably a harsh drink, prone to burn the mouth and the throat, whileparadoxicallycalming and warming the body.)

Hence, we have the tradition of drinking whiskey neat today. Most peopleyour dad included, Id wagerdrink whiskey straight without mixers or ice, to enjoy the spirit at its purest and most potent. Alternatively, whiskey is sometimes served with a simple mixer: The drinker might prefer it poured over a crown of crushed ice; cooled by a cube or two of ice; or with a hit of club soda. Sure, these are great ways to savor whiskey, but its a limited repertoire. Whiskeys pleasures are diverse and delicious. And much to the surprise of the traditionalist, its a versatile spirit thats extremely adaptable when it comes to mixology.

Even to this day, whiskey has a reputation as a straight drink: that is, straight out of the bottle, straight into a glass, and straight into the mouth without the benefit of mixers, and often without tasting much of anything except the alcohols heat. After all, experimenting with whiskey cocktails is a relatively new phenomenon. Americans only began to appreciate whiskeys versatility when the countrys first true mixologist, Professor Jerry Thomas, published his famous book of cocktail recipes, The Bar-Tenders Guide: Or, How To Mix All Kinds of Plain and Fancy Drinks, in 1862. A hundred and fifty-plus years later, the whiskey landscape has changed dramatically, thanks to craft spirits producers. Craft spirits are liquors that are made in small batches by small producers, and due to the high-quality ingredients they use, theyve truly changed the way we view whiskey in the twenty-first century. Creative craft spirits producers pay careful attention to the aromatics and flavor of their liquors. This results in top-notch products that are often available at elite whiskey bars and other trendy watering holes (as well as your local liquor store). But this quality does come with a price: Craft spirits, which feature prominently in this book, can be quite expensive, so do choose wisely.

The up-and-coming world of whiskey mixology is far more exciting than merely adding a few drops of water into a glass and calling it a cocktail. Its a matter of creativity, intellect, and good tasteand its right here at your fingertips. There are reams of recipes in this book for cocktails that showcase just about every variation of whiskey, whether its bourbon; rye; whiskeys made from alternative grains such as oats and quinoa (seriously!); white whiskeys such as moonshine (the