Our first recipes! The old fashioned Old Fashioned

As we noted last time, the Old Fashioned is the closest thing to the original cocktail that we know of. But there is much disagreement over the correct way to make one. This won't be the first time we'll talk about disagreements over how to make a drink "correctly."

Modern American Drinks" by George J. Kappeler

One of the earliest recipes, from "Modern American Drinks" by George J. Kappeler, was written in 1895 (a full 89 years after the first publication of a definition of a cocktail). Kappeler instructs us to "Dissolve a small lump of sugar with a little water in a whiskey-glass; add two dashes Angostura bitters, a small piece ice, a piece lemon-peel, one jigger [1.5 fl oz] whiskey. Mix with small bar-spoon and serve, leaving spoon in glass."

David Embury's classic book published in 1948 provides a slight variation, also generally accepted among purists:

• 12 parts American whiskey
• 1 part simple syrup
• 1-3 dashes Angostura bitters
• Twist of lemon peel over the top, and serve garnished with the lemon peel and a maraschino cherry

As with any recipe, many, many variations have been developed, and despite the purist insistence to adhere to recipes written as long as a century ago, the "correct" way to make the drink is the way the customer prefers. Most modern cocktail recipe books call for Rye or Bourbon whiskey, and also include topping the drink with soda. A good bartender might ask, "Rye or Bourbon?" and, "top it with soda or water?"

Two additional recipes from the 1900s vary in the precise ingredients, but continue to omit the cherry expected in a modern Old Fashioned, as well as the top off of soda water contested by cocktail purists. Orange bitters were highly popular at this time and, for the second recipe, the Curaçao appears to have been added to increase the orange flavor.

This one is from "Drinks as they are Mixed" by Paul E. Lowe (1904):

Use old-fashioned cocktail glass.

• Sugar, 1 lump.

• Seltzer, 1 dash, and crush sugar with muddler

• Ice, one square piece

• Orange bitters, 1 dash.

• Angostura bitters, 1 dash

• Lemon peel, 1 piece

• Whiskey, 1 jigger

Stir gently and serve with spoon.

This is from "Jacks Manual" by Jack A. Grohusko (1908):

OLD FASION COCKTAILS

• 1 dash Angostura bitters 

• 1 dash Curaçao 

• Piece of cut loaf sugar 

• Dissolve in two spoonfuls of water 100% liquor as desired 

• 1 piece ice in glass

Stir well and twist a piece of lemon peel on top and serve

These represent three of the earliest Old Fashioned recipes. Literally dozens more have been published and countless more variations concocted. Do you have a favorite Old Fashioned recipe? Let us know!

Imagining the first cocktails

The earliest ingredient list (noted in our previous post) included spirits, sugar, water, and bitters. That matches up very nicely with what we now refer to as an Old Fashioned.

Classic Old Fashioned

The classic Old Fashioned is made by muddling dissolved sugar with bitters then adding alcohol, such as jenever, whiskey, or brandy, and a twist of citrus rind.

The name "Old Fashioned" originated as a term used by late 19th century bar patrons to distinguish cocktails made the “old-fashioned” way from newer, more complex cocktails.

So what we know as an Old Fashioned is quite possibly the closest approximation of the first drink to be called a cocktail.

A sober exploration. How did we come up with the word "cocktail" for a, well, for a cocktail?

Great question. But no one knows. The origin of the word cocktail is a mystery.

What we do know, is that the earliest known printed use of the word in the context of a drink was in The Farmer's Cabinet on April 28, 1803:

The Balance & Columbian Repository

"Drank a glass of cocktail—excellent for the head...Call'd at the Doct's. found Burnham—he looked very wise—drank another glass of cocktail."

Three years later, we find the earliest definition of the word in the May 13, 1806, edition of The Balance and Columbian Repository, a publication in Hudson, New York. A reader posed the question, "What is a cocktail?" The witty answer:

"Cocktail is a stimulating liquor composed of spirits of any kind, sugar, water, and bitters—it is vulgarly called a bittered sling and is supposed to be an excellent electioneering potion, inasmuch as it renders the heart stout and bold, at the same time that it fuddles the head. It is said, also to be of great use to a democratic candidate: because a person, having swallowed a glass of it, is ready to swallow any thing else."

Clearly, whatever the exact recipe, the effect was very similar to our cocktails today. Huzzah for that.

What is a cocktail?

Aside from being the feathery plumage on the rump of a male chicken, a cocktail is an alcoholic mixed drink that contains two or more ingredients — at least one of the ingredients must be a spirit. 


The dry, albeit stiffly correct, Merriam-Webster Dictionary, defines a cocktail as "an iced drink of wine or distilled liquor mixed with flavoring ingredients."  Clearly, that's an incredibly broad definition, but it does reflect the most modern notion that pretty much any mixed drink is a cocktail


So now days, the word has come to mean almost any mixed drink that has alcohol in it. A cocktail today usually contains one or more kinds of spirit and one or more mixers, such as soda or fruit juice. Additional ingredients can include ice, sugar, honey, milk, cream, liqueurs, fruits, and various herbs.


So for what it's worth, Skol vodka and Kool-Aid could be construed as a cocktail. We here at Imbibing Culture frown on that though.