Manhattans
Kate’s Manhattan by the Bucket
Soak a jar full of Jack Daniel’s Wood Chips in water overnight. Drain.
Use these proportions:
2 1⁄2 ounces Seagram’s Seven
3/4 ounce Noilly Prat Rouge
2 dashes Angostura bitters
Add enough of Manhattan to cover the wood, let sit for a week or so.
Serve in a rocks glass with a brandied cherry and a big ice cube.
The Longer Story
Everyone has a recipe they’ve calibrated exactly to their tastes. The upside is drinking something that fits you perfectly. The downside is always being a little disappointed when you order it at a restaurant. My dad, for example, can’t order Pasta e Fagioli. Ask him. He’ll tell you everyone else does it wrong, and when you have his version, you’ll agree.
I’ve spent this year perfecting my Manhattan. People ask for my recipe, so here’s the long version.
Proportions
I stared with the Death & Co book, which is great. It’s a lovely coffee table book but also information dense and fun to read. If you like cocktails, you’ll get a lot from it.
They use the Manhattan as an illustration in how proportions affect a drink (“reprinted” here by The Nest with a mistake — all versions have bitters).
Their “Just Right” Manhattan
2 1⁄2 ounces Rittenhouse 100 rye
3/4 ounce house sweet vermouth
2 dashes angostura bitters
1 brandied cherry
Whiskey
Manhattans are traditionally made with American rye whiskey (distilled from at least 51% rye), but are often made with other whiskeys, like Canadian ryes (which may or may not be distilled from rye grain), American blended whiskeys, and Bourbon.
I don’t want my whiskey to be dear — this is our house drink. My parents, my best friend, and her husband did a blind taste test of whiskeys for Manhattans, and they were all surprised that Seagrams Seven came out on top. I love Blanton’s in a Manhattan, but let’s be real.
Sweet Vermouth
Finding the right Whiskey/Vermouth pairings is like finding a good analogy to conclude this sentence. The choice of vermouth really changes the character of the drink, so it’s worth experimenting. I like the rouges of Noilly Prat and Dolin in a pinch.
The biggest problem with Vermouth is that it will go bad. Keep it in the fridge and toss it after a month or so.
Wood
I love the flavor of a barrel-aged Manhattan. You can buy one of those cute barrels, but an easier way is to buy a bunch of a wood chips and put them in a half gallon ball jar.
Amount of chips and length of aging are matters for debate, but I don’t think it matters that much. I like Jack Daniel’s wood chips, which are pretty easy to find.
I give the chips a one-day soak in water before I use them (otherwise the drinks get some almost minty kind of off-flavors). I reuse them a bunch of times, until they look all swollen and stop working.
Brandied Cherries
What we call “Maraschino cherries” are usually one of three types of preserved cherry:
- The gross Red Dye 40 cherries you get in the super market. Useful for party tricks with stems, staining whipped cream, and decorating hams, I suppose.
- Candied cherries (the cherries above belong also to this category), which are preserved by sugaring. Luxardo cherries are candied, not brandied. I got into an ugly argument with a bartender about this (making friends everywhere).
- Brandied cherries, which are preserved by cooking them in alcohol. The ones I’ve found are usually in Bourbon (Jack Rudy, Woodford, and Marker’s Mark market jars, for example).
The best thing I have ever made are brandied sour cherries. Sour cherries are in season in Maryland for approximately an afternoon. You can wait in line for a couple of hours to get about half a pie’s worth. This seems like a more fitting application for a precious good — instead of making up 1/16th of a mouthful, each cherry gets to bless one cocktail.
Tim Allen’s recipe
1 cup Luxardo maraschino liqueur
1 pint sour cherries, stemmed and pitted
Bring the Luxardo to a light simmer, then turn off the heat. Add the cherries, stir, let cool, and then pour cherries and liquor into jars. Can last in the fridge for months. You can replace the Luxardo a little at a time, if you need to.
I’ve loved this year of Manhattans. If you have a suggestion for the next thing to work on, please leave a note below or send me a tweet!
