My favourite (booze-related) things: Part III— How to shake a sour
Use chicken’s greatest gift to man in your next cocktail (or is chicken the egg’s greatest gift? Uh-oh…)
Note: while I encourage any aspiring bartender or home cocktailer to invest in a Boston shaker (learn how to use it here), I’ve crafted sours by shaking with a closed Mason jar. So no worries if you haven’t gotten a Boston yet!
Sours — like the Amaretto sour or whiskey sour — as any purist will tell you, must be made with egg white. I’m not kidding, guys. A real, chicken’s egg white. I once had a guest nearly topple over in amazement as she watched me make her Amaretto sour. For all the years she was ordering the drink, she had absolutely no idea she was imbibing raw egg. And when I told her there are certain cocktails that even use the entire egg (such as the classic Coffee Cocktail), we almost had to bust out the smelling salts.
But — and as I explained to Lady Faints-a-Lot there — not every bar uses egg. Indeed, if you order sours at any high volume establishment — think concert spaces or nightclubs, or places that aren’t super cocktail-centric — you’ll be hard-pressed to find the bartenders cracking eggs into your drink. The process can slow you down (especially because when properly done, it’s a two-step shaking process). And honestly, it’s because those bartenders know that if you, as a guest, have got your nightclub game face on and your whole goal is to get right crunk, you probably don’t give a shit if your sour is super rich and creamy. Better to save the time and product if you think a sour should just be a balance of sweet and tart with your booze thrown in.
How much you’ve been missing, my dear.
Screw you, E.coli, ya jerk!
That egg white, when properly shaken, will foam up and add a luxurious creamy richness that is essential in crafting a true and proper sour. So nut up and give E.coli the finger — the serious places are the ones that use egg white, and these places are going to make absolutely sure that their eggs are fresh, cold, and free of any discrepancies. I’ve never gotten ill from drinking a sour, and the only sours I ever really drink are the ones that I make for myself at home using eggs from the grocery store. Just make sure they’re free of cracks and discolouration. And check the expiration date. Doi.
Note: for the love of all things good, please don’t use the egg whites that come in a carton. The taste of that unholy product in a cocktail will immediately make you regret that you didn’t take the time to crack an egg. Some bars use it to save time — I disagree with this. Sorry!
My basic whiskey sour recipe
I, being a Jameson lover, like a whiskey sour using, well, Jameson, the perpetual personal drinking choice of bartenders worldwide (or Toronto-wide, at least).
2 oz. Jameson
1 oz. lime juice
0.5 oz. lemon juice
1 oz. simple syrup (I like using my raw sugar simple which I make at a 0.75:1 ratio of turbinado sugar to water, but regular white sugar simple — 1:1 ratio — is totally fine)
1 egg white, free of shells (duh) and free of chalazae (see image below)
Now onto the crucial shaking method; and here’s where I might get raged at by other bartenders should they happen to be reading this:
I dry shake second.
For those of you who aren’t bartenders and are thinking, Dry shake? What the hell, cocktails are wet, idiot, I’ll back up a little.
It takes two, baby
The crafting of a proper sour requires you to put your drink ingredients through a two-step shaking process if you really want that egg white to perform to its fullest. And trust me, you do.
The most common way a sour is shaken is that the ingredients are built in your shaker glass, and then given a dry shake. A dry shake means you do not add ice to the ingredients before sealing up the shaker and going to town. And when I say “going to town” I mean it — maybe even go a few towns over when you shake a sour, or any cocktail that calls for egg. A vigorous, sharp, almost jerky motion when you shake will beat up that egg white as it hits the shaker base and make it froth — think of it as cocktail whisking.
But why a jerky shake? Because—science!
When I shake a sour, my goal is to propel more force when jerking the shaker downward or forward (there are so many opportunities for dirty jokes here). So raise your shaker a little higher than you normally would, and jerk it down sharply. Repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat…
This sharp thrust allows the ingredients to hit the shaker base with more force and then repel more immediately, making the whole “beating the egg” idea more effective as more air gets into the ingredients. Also, raising the shaker higher means more force is generated in the downswing. Think about it —in baseball, the father back you can wind up before a throw, the farther that ball is gonna fly once you release it. Science.
Round two
After a healthy amount of these jerky dry shakes, the next step in the common sour method is that the ingredients are topped with ice, and shaken vigorously again. Work up a sweat (or, in my case, a light glisten).
The second shake is to give the cocktail the chill and dilution necessary for it to reach taste perfection, and to froth the egg white even further.
Strain your sour into a rocks glass (also known as an old fashioned glass) or — my favourite glassware — a coupe glass. If you serve it on the rocks, make sure to strain the drink into a glass that is only halfway full of ice (to allow that foam to float freely on the top), and that the rocks are fresh. Don’t dump in the ones you’ve been using to shake as they’ve become too diluted. Top with three small dashes of orange bitters if you wanna get fancy, and voila.
However, I do things a little differently than I’ve described above. Ready to have your minds blown?
I reverse the order of shaking.
Meaning that I shake the ingredients on ice first, then strain them and dry shake.
I never did this until very recently, when my bartender friend Sara told me she read it in a book once. And then she demonstrated by crafting her signature cocktail that is currently featured on Luma’s cocktail list (the Amaretti Con-Té), and hoo boy — that thing foamed up like a cappuccino. I was immediately convinced, and I encourage you to try both methods to see for yourself. But if you’re happier going the dry-to-wet way, go nuts! Just thought I’d bring the knowledge.
So go get your shake ‘n’ sour on, y’all. Cheers!
