- 50mL bourbon or rye
- 25mL lemon juice
- 25mL simple syrup
- 10mL egg white
Dry shake all ingredients (described in detail below), then shake again over ice. Strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with an orange peel, a maraschino cherry, and/or a few drops of Angostura bitters.
Ah, the sour. It’s one of those classic cocktail styles that can be made so many ways. At the most basic level, a sour is any cocktail that contains a spirit, an acidic ingredient such as lemon juice, and sugar or syrup.
Just about any spirit can be used as the base for a sour, but the whisky sour is probably the most well-known version. The joy of it is in it’s simplicity. Good whisky gives you the kick that you want with sour and sweet flavors to balance everything out. And the magic of the egg white gives the drink that awesome foamy texture that is ever so much fun. But there are a few tricks to getting this drink right.
The Egg White
Some would argue that the egg white is optional in a whisky sour. They’re wrong. Sans egg white, a whisky sour is fine, but it becomes so much better when frothed up with an egg white. But there are some tricks to getting it right.
You may have noticed that I listed 10mL of egg white in my recipe above. I find that precision matters here. Many recipes will simple call for 1 egg white. But not all eggs are created equal. Many large eggs will have more than 10mL of egg white. And too much or too little can really mess with the drink. So, I always recommend measuring out the amount of egg white. I’ll admit this can be a little tricky. But for easy reference, 10mL is about 2 teaspoons. So you can bust out your baking measurement kit to help out with this one.
The Dry Shake
We want this drink niiice aaaand frothy. And to get that we need to do something called a dry shake. Combine all of the ingredients in your shaker tin, but don’t add any ice just yet. With just the ingredients and no ice, you’re going to close up that tin and shake it with every fiber of your being. If your arm doesn’t feel like it’s going to fall off after this shake, you didn’t shake it hard enough.
All of this agitation is causing the proteins in the egg white to break down. These broken down proteins trap air bubbles in the mixture, creating that frothy magic. The acid in the citrus juice is also strengthening that bond helping to hold those air bubbles in place. The reason we do this without ice is that the process happens faster, with less shaking, at room temperature. But we still want the cocktail to be ice cold, so after the first dry shake, it’s time for a second regular shake with ice.
Playing With Foam
As you can see in the picture, you get a nice layer of foam at the top of your drink. If you’re feeling artistic, this can be a fun canvas to draw on. You can add a few drops of bitters, or drag a maraschino cherry around in the foam to create fun and interesting patterns for relatively little garnishing effort (and we all know how lazy I can be with my garnishing).
I’ve heard this called a great winter drink. Personally, I think it’s a great drink for any season. For now, it’s a great drink to celebrate kicking 2020 out the fucking door. Cheers friends, and happy new year!