How to make an 'Old Fashioned' cocktail

No slave to fashion

If you want to test a bartender, order an Old Fashioned. It's one of the classics; one of the six basic drinks listed in David A Embury's The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks (1948); possibly the very first cocktail of all. It got its name precisely because it predates ‘modern' drinks like the martini or the daiquiri - in fact, it was already ‘old-fashioned' in 1895 when George J Kappeler included it in his book, Modern American Drinks.

Legend has it that the recipe was invented in the 1880s by a bartender at the Pendennis Club, a gentlemen's club in Louisville, Kentucky, either in honour of a bourbon distiller named Colonel James E Pepper, or for a retired Civil War general who didn't like his whiskey neat.

Only... it's far more likely that the Pendennis Club bartender merely introduced his customers to an already-established drink. After all, in the world's first compilation of drinks recipes - How to Mix Drinks: The Bon Vivant's Companion (1862) - author Jerry Thomas includes the so-called Whiskey Cocktail, which calls for sugar (in the form of gum syrup), bitters, whiskey and a piece of lemon peel to be shaken with ice then strained into a "fancy red wine glass".

Apart from the straining bit, this recipe is virtually identical to Old Fashioned recipes detailed in books like Modern American Drinks (1895), Drinks as they are Mixed (1904) by Paul E Lowe and Old Waldorf Bar Days (1931) by Albert Stevens Crockett, all of which simply call for the ingredients to be stirred with a spoon (and for the spoon to be left in the glass).

Even further back - in 1806 - it was an American magazine called The Balance that first defined the cocktail as "a stimulating liquor, composed of spirits of any kind, sugar, water and bitters". Choose whiskey and, voilà, you effectively have a very simple Old Fashioned. And simplicity is - or should be - what it's all about.

Purists get very upset at how this cocktail has ‘degenerated' in recent times, especially when bartenders insist on topping it up with soda water. "More like a bourbon spritzer than a classic cocktail!" complains Robert Hess on www.drinkboy.com, stating that the recipe published in Charles Schumann's "otherwise excellent" American Bar: The Artistry of Mixing Drinks (1995) marks the start of the Old Fashioned's ‘downfall'.

But while he says it is a ‘serious mistake' to top the drink up with soda or water, in amounts dependent on the size of the glass, he is less concerned about the muddling of orange and lemon wedges with the sugar prior to the addition of whiskey, or the cherry garnish.

Certainly these fruity additions were common by 1941 when Crosby Gaige, in Cocktail Guide and Ladies' Companion, wrote that "serious-minded persons omit fruit salad from Old Fashioneds, while the frivolous window-dress the brew with slices of orange, sticks of pineapple, and a couple of turnips". Gaige wasn't serious about the turnips, needless to say, but it seems the orange and cherry were here to stay.

Though some older recipes call for a lump of sugar to be muddled with the bitters and water, the version which follows is essentially David Embury's and uses simple syrup, which is sugar dissolved in an equal amount of water.

Old Fashioned Deluxe
1 to 2 t simple syrup
1 to 3 dashes Angostura bitters
1 oz whiskey, plus extra
(traditionally bourbon but rye and scotch can also
be used)

Pour simple syrup into an old-fashioned glass and add bitters. Stir with a spoon to blend. Add the whiskey and stir again. Add two large, cracked cubes of ice. Add a little more whiskey and a twist of lemon, dropping the peel in the glass. Decorate with a maraschino cherry and
serve, along with the spoon.