- got a nice chunk of good work done, great meals with colleagues (Legal Seafood, and the sushi and Thai places by the office), and interesting if quick drives around local historical sites including a trip by Walden Pond.

Lately I’ve been moving away from the recipe for old-fashioneds that my dad taught me towards a more minimal style: no muddled fruit and less sugar, just whiskey with its flavor adjusted and balanced. To now I’ve reached a drink with five ingredients: Bulleit rye (to which my brother-in-law introduced me at Thanksgiving), Angostura bitters, two Fee Brothers bitters, orange and cherry, and rich syrup (2 parts brown sugar to 1 part water). But what I’d like to work out is a recipe for bitters of my own to replace the combination of three store-bought ones.

I’m about half-way through making the first attempt:

• Flavoring agents:
  • 3 tablespoons (23g) dried orange peel
  • Zest of one orange (2g)
  • 1/2 cup dried sour cherries (64g)
  • 4 cardamom pods (below 1g)
  • 1 cinnamon stick (4g)
  • 1/4 teaspoon cloves (1g)
  • 3 allspice berries (below 1g)
  • About 1/12 of a nutmeg pod
  • 1/2 vanilla bean (scrapings from inside, plus shell roughly chopped, 2g)
  • 1/8 cup toasted hazelnuts (21g)
  • 1/8 cup toasted pecans (19g)
• Bittering agents:
  • 1/4 teaspoon quassia chips (below 1g)
  • Pinch of dried black walnut leaf (below 1g)
  • 1/2 teaspoon wild cherry bark (1g)
• 2 cups Wild Turkey 101
• 1 cup water
• 2 tablespoons rich syrup

The technique seems to be standard: infuse the flavoring and bittering agents in the whiskey in a closed glass jar for a week, moving it around daily. Strain out the solids, saving the infused whiskey to a separate clean jar, and the solids into a saucepan. Add the water to the saucepan, bring to a simmer, and immediately remove from heat. Let cool, transfer to a jar of its own, and allow to infuse for another week (I’m at this point now). Strain out the solids, combine the two infusions, strain some additional times, and finish with the syrup.

My early impression of the infused whiskey is that it’s light on the cherries, heavy on the cloves, and maybe also heavy on the allspice and nutmeg – but we’ll see next weekend and over the next few weeks how its old-fashioneds turn out.

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