Old Pal
30 ml Rye whiskey, 30 ml Campari, 30 ml Dry vermouth, 1 Lemon twist
Photo: Manhattan Cocktail2 · All credits
Ingredients
Measures below are multiplied for 6 drinks. Unmeasurable amounts such as “a splash” are left as written.
- 360 ml Measuring jug A measuring jug: pour to the 360 ml line. Rye whiskey - Bourbon makes a softer, sweeter drink if that is what you have
- 180 ml Measuring jug A measuring jug: pour to the 180 ml line. Sweet vermouth
- 12 dashes Bottle Twelve quick shakes of the bottle - each a few drops, about a millilitre. Angostura bitters
- 6 cherries Maraschino cherry (optional)
Measured in Millilitres (UK). Sign in to read these in American measures. Print a kitchen card at this size.
What the jigger, the spoons and the jug hold, in millilitres and in fluid ounces, is on the measures reference.
Quick version
- Stir rye, vermouth and bitters over ice and strain into a chilled glass.
Method
Pitcher (6 drinks)Pitcher (6 drinks) - about 540 ml of measured ingredients, before ice and dilution.
Timings and per-glass steps below are written for one drink and are not scaled. A full jug takes longer to chill, so stir or shake until it is properly cold rather than by the clock, and pour over fresh ice one glass at a time.
- Fill a mixing glass with ice and add the rye, the vermouth and the bitters.
- Stir for 30 seconds, until the glass frosts and the drink has taken on the water it needs.
- Strain into a chilled coupe, or over one large cube in a rocks glass.
- Add a cherry - and if you can find the good ones, add two.
Serve it
Volumes in this story are multiplied for the size above, along with the ingredients. Years, ratios and the capacities of glasses and jugs are left as written.
Manhattan
The most reliable story has it invented at the Manhattan Club in New York in the 1870s for a party held for the governor of New York, and as with most stories of this age there is a competing theory involving a bartender called Black. What is certain is that by the 1880s it was being drunk everywhere, and that it has never really gone out of fashion since.
Getting it right
This is a drink that lives or dies on its vermouth, so keep the bottle in the fridge and buy a new one when it has been open a couple of months - a tired vermouth makes a tired Manhattan, and there is nowhere for it to hide. Rye gives you spice and a dry finish; bourbon gives you sweetness and corn. Both are right, and choosing between them is one of the small pleasures of a Friday evening.
Tasting notes
Warm spice, vanilla and orange peel, with the vermouth rounding the whole thing off. Strong, smooth and quietly serious - the drink for sitting down properly rather than standing up.
More Rye whiskey cocktails
Pepper & Rye
50 ml Rye whiskey, 100 ml Dr Pepper, 10 ml Lime juice, 1 dash Angostura bitters, 1 Maraschino cherry
Sazerac
60 ml Rye whiskey, 1 cube Sugar, 3 dashes Peychaud's bitters, 1 dash Absinthe, 1 Lemon twist