It’s been over four years since I started writing this blog, and I’ve learned a lot in that time. I started by posting classic recipes like the Old Fashioned, the Manhattan, and the Martini. In some cases, it was the first time I’d ever made these drinks myself. Part of the whole idea was to share my learning experience with all of you. The only downside is that this means I posted some of the most crucial and fundamental recipes before I fully knew what I was doing. I don’t make some of these drinks the same way anymore, so I’m reluctant to point people to my early posts. But I know I have a lot of new readers who don’t make a lot of cocktails at home and would really benefit from seeing how easy some of the most classic drinks can be. So I thought it was time I re-visited some of those early drinks with updated recipes and photos. And the most obvious place to start is with the first cocktail I ever posted, arguably the most fundamental cocktail: the Old Fashioned.
The Old Fashioned in its simplest form is made with three ingredients:
1. Spirit. Whiskey generally, though early recipes recommended other spirits like brandy and gin as well. Rye is most traditional, but I prefer bourbon, which is slightly sweeter and less spicy. Since you’re not adding much to it, go for a quality whiskey that you would enjoy sipping on its own. That said, making an Old Fashioned can be a good way to dress up a whiskey that isn’t your favorite. My go-to bourbon for cocktails right now is Buffalo Trace and I enjoy it in an Old Fashioned.
2. Sugar. A sugar syrup is better than granulated sugar because it dissolves much more easily. Classic simple syrup is incredibly easy to make: just heat equal parts sugar and water in a saucepan until the sugar is dissolved, and let it cool before you add it to any drinks. It will keep in the fridge for weeks. Other sweeteners can work too. I love using maple syrup in my Old Fashioneds.
3. Bitters. Bitters are basically spirits infused with high concentrations of herbs and spices that are used in small quantities to add bitterness to cocktails. They help blend flavors and balance drinks. The classic bitters for this and most cocktails are Angostura. They are easy to find at any liquor store and many grocery stores. They’re also very cheap. If you ever make drinks at home, you should have a bottle of these. But it doesn’t have to be Angostura. I love experimenting with different bitters in my Old Fashioneds.
Those three ingredients make an Old Fashioned. Add them to a glass with ice, and you’re done. It’s as simple as can be. And it’s this simplicity that was lacking from my original recipe, which contains a lot of fruit. These days, I recommend just an orange twist for garnish. But if you’re new to the drink or aren’t really a whiskey drinker, you might prefer the old recipe as a starting point to ease you into the more classic version. Both are so easy to make, and a great place to start if you don’t often make drinks at home.
History: The concept of combining spirits with other ingredients and flavors is age-old, but the word “cocktail” is not. The first known appearance of the term in print was in an 1806 issue of a newspaper from Hudson, New York called The Balance and Columbian Repository. A reader wrote in to ask the paper to define the word. The editor replied that a cocktail was “a stimulating liquor, composed of spirits of any kind, sugar, water, and bitters.” This was also called a “bittered sling” – a sling being a drink comprised of spirit, sugar, and water. It is the bitters, therefore, that made the cocktail different. The drink we know today as an Old Fashioned would simply have been called a Whiskey Cocktail. It appears under this name in Jerry Thomas’ 1862 Bartender’s Guide.
However, as cocktails began to become more elaborate with ingredients like curaçao and absinthe, the word “cocktail” evolved to refer to a broader category of drinks rather than just the simple recipe above. (Doug Ford compares this to the more recent evolution of the word “martini,” which is often applied categorically to all sorts of sugary monstrosities that barely resemble the original mixture of gin and vermouth.) Many of these new recipes were called “improved” whiskey cocktails. So someone wanting to refer to the original, simple drink would call it an “old fashioned” whiskey cocktail. The term appears in print as early as 1880, when the Chicago Tribune mentions “old fashioned cocktails” in passing. The first known printed recipe called an Old Fashioned Whiskey Cocktail is in George J. Kappeler’s 1895 Modern American Drinks. Eventually, the “whiskey cocktail” portion was dropped, leaving us with the name we know today. But the drink itself hasn’t changed much.
Old Fashioned
2 oz. rye or bourbon whiskey
1 barspoon (1 tsp) simple syrup
2-3 dashes Angostura bitters
Combine simple syrup and bitters in an Old Fashioned glass. Add a large ice cube. Top with whiskey and stir gently. Garnish with an orange twist.
Historical information from Cold Glass, Thrillist, and Difford’s Guide.