Godfather
35 ml Scotch whisky, 35 ml Amaretto, 237 ml Ice
Rusty Nail
Scotch and Drambuie - two bottles, no fuss, deeply warming.
Classic
Easy
2 min
Photo: Rusty Nail at Sparta Restaurant, Bedford MA by John Phelan · CC BY-SA 3.0 · All credits
Ingredients
Measures below are multiplied for 6 drinks. Unmeasurable amounts such as “a splash” are left as written.
- 270 ml Measuring jug A measuring jug: pour to the 270 ml line. Scotch whisky - Blended is traditional; smoky is lovely if you like it that way
- 150 ml Jigger Three large sides (3 x 50 ml) of a standard jigger. Drambuie - The heather-honey Scotch liqueur, and the whole point of the drink
- 6 twists Lemon twist (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
- Scotch and Drambuie over ice, stir, twist of lemon.
Method
Pitcher (6 drinks)Pitcher (6 drinks) - about 420 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.
- Put a large cube in a rocks glass and add the Scotch.
- Pour in the Drambuie.
- Stir for ten seconds or so, until the outside of the glass is cold.
- Twist a strip of lemon peel over the top and drop it in.
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.
Rusty Nail
The name is said to come from a bar in Manhattan in the 1930s, where a customer ordered a Scotch and Drambuie and a barman - looking at the colour of the drink and the odd, honeyed flavour - called it a rusty nail. It was a favourite of the Rat Pack and of everybody who prefers two bottles to five, and it has never really gone out of fashion because it does not need to.
Getting it right
Ratios are personal here; two parts Scotch to one part Drambuie is the classic, and it is a good place to start, though a 1:1 version is the more comforting drink on a cold evening. Use a blended Scotch rather than a delicate single malt - the honey and heather in the Drambuie will drown out anything subtle - and stir rather than shake, because this is a drink about smoothness. One big cube, not a glassful of small ones: it should stay cold for as long as you take over it.
Tasting notes
Heather honey and herbs wrapped around smoke, with a long, warm, distinctly sweet finish. It is what to drink when it is raining.
For a Highland counterpart, the same drink made with gin instead of Scotch is a Highland Negroni's distant cousin; made with bourbon it becomes a different and equally cosy thing.
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