So I’ve been reading about cocktails and trying things here and there.
One thing that I’ve run into is the argument about shaken vs stirred, and when I read stuff like “shaking bruises the liquor”, my bullshit detector goes off.
Obviously, shaking is going to result in more agitation, meaning things are going to get mixed more, with more air forced into the cocktail, and more melting of any ice in the shaker. Probably not a good idea to shake soda or solid ingredients.
Stirring is simpler, but doesn’t mix as well, but if you’ve just got alcohol, that’s ok.
So is there anything to this besides “stir if you can, else shake it, and then throw the solid ingredients and soda in afterwards?”
The whole idea of bruising the liquor is complete and total bullshit.
The simplest rule is “stir it if you want the drink to be clear and not cloudy, always shake if there’s citrus”. So you don’t shake a martini because it’ll end up cloudy and full of ice chips, not because of bruising.
And yeah, don’t shake soda.
Stirring should mix pretty well if you have plenty of ice in the mixing glass and a good twist-handled bar spoon (which costs a couple bucks, so you really ought to have one).
Cooking issues is a fantastic blog! Strongly recommend everybody read through it if you’re interested in the science side. I particularly recommend their series of articles on pressure cooking and japanese fish slaughter, “ike jime”. Fascinating stuff.
I think the real issue is how to get the coldness into the cocktail along with the minimum amount of mixing necessary to marry the parts. Everything else is to the drink’s detriment. “Bruising” I always took to mean “watering down” by overmixing the ice into the drink and adding too much water.
Yes, definitely read the Cooking Issues posts. They’re excellent. And yes, the general rule is, “shake if and only if the drink contains cloudy ingredients”. That said, I’ve shaken a few drinks when I wasn’t supposed to and the results are usually fine. Yes it comes out more cloudy and with some ice chips in it but whether this is good or bad is somewhat subjective. The typical argument is that the clear drink is prettier but sometimes you don’t really care if it’s pretty.
The main result of the cooking issues posts is that it doesn’t really matter what you do, the amount you chill the drink is going to be directly related to the amount of ice you mix/melt into it. That said, I’ve experimented with chilling drinks a different way: mixing them and placing them the freezer to cool. This works great and completely removes the need to dilute the drink with ice water. That said, it’s my experience that you want to dilute your cocktails, at least a little bit, though possibly not as much as you would with typical shaking/stirring. For example I did an experiment with Manhattans where I found that my typical stirring technique would add a little more than 3/4 of an ounce of water to the drink. However, I found that about 1/2 of an ounce of water added to the drink, then chilled in the freezer, actually tasted better / more balanced.
I always wondered if it would be a good investment for a bar to get one of those rapid chillers like they use on Iron Chef, that way you can get a cocktail down to the appropriate chilled temperature without worrying about diluting it with ice or muddling the flavors by shaking/stirring/whatever.
Unless you’re running some sort of crazy high end cocktail bar, I doubt it would be. Most people have no idea what temperature their drink should be or if it should be shaken or stirred, and there’s probably a slew of differing opinions about that anyway.
The only thing I know is beer shouldn’t be too cold (though colder than the Brits say) and a good Scotch should be room temperature, neat and perhaps have a few drops of water.
So am I the only person who keeps vodka, gin, and rum in the freezer at all times? You don’t really need ice for a martini that way at all, and for drinks where you do want ice, the ice melts more slowly.
Why would it impact the taste? If you mean just because it’s too cold, well, let me say that I’ve never found an excess of coldth to be in any way a problem in any drink I’ve ever made in the history of ever. If you mean because the cold somehow damages things, then I am skeptical, when it comes to white liquors.
Too coldth = numbed tastebuds. You won’t taste the drink as much.
This is why beer is properly served in the 50-65 degree temperature band (depending on style).
But honestly do what works for you. I used to do the syrupy liquor thing myself, until a friend set me right. Have a sip of good bourbon out of the freezer, compare it to the same bourbon at room temperature.
Sure, bourbon, but that’s the brownest of the brown liquors. I don’t freeze whiskey.
A thing to keep in mind is that these freezer things are for mixing, so I’m not having a whole glass of nothing but the liquor. If you’re having a rum and coke, starting off with supercold rum isn’t going to result in an undrinkably cold drink, it’ll just be one that’s pretty cold and requires less icemelt to get down to a proper temperature.
At the very least, I’d keep the liquors in the refrigerator.
What’s that? You want me to drink you? But I’m in court…
And yes to scotch plus a splash of water. Never iced.
Oh, and while I agree that beer should be warmish so you can taste the flavors, I’ll admit to putting ice cubes in a light pilsner on 100 degree day when I want to cool off. Of course, I don’t care much for pilsners anyway so missing the flavor isn’t much of a loss to me :P
So, for vodka, that seems like it’s ok. Everything else goes in the cupboard.
Can I also admit that I’m a heretic because I constantly run out of fresh limes and lemons and use bottled instead, or will that result in a contract being put out on me?
