

> in the no-no's thread, nidal says that its bad to muddle fruit in an
> old fashioned but both dale degroff's book and the joy of mixology
> call for you to muddle a orange and cherry. just curious about this.
----------
Brendan
This can be a slightly debatable concept.
"Originally" the Old Fashioned did not include any orange, muddled or
otherwise. It's garnish of choice was a lemon wedge (as a garnish, no
muddling), then a lemon wedge and cherry, or a lemon twist, or a pinapple and
cherry, or...
The earliest reference that I've found to even "using" an orange is in The
Savoy Cocktail Book from 1930. And there it was just a garnish (with a lemon
peel).
In "What'll You Have?" (1933) we see an orange, cherry, and lemon peel being
used. The orange and cherry perhaps being "stired" in the drink, although the
specific details of how they were used wasn't mentioned. But no mention of
muddling at all.
In "Burke's Complete Cocktail and Tastybite Recipes" (1936) it states "Add one
slice of Orange, one slice of Lemon Peel, mull with Bitters and Sugar, then
add teh whiskey and serve in the same glass." Which appears to be the first
version I could encounter that indicated muddling (mull) of the fruit.
But muddling stays a "random" occurance until we get closer to modern day...
You can read some more of the history/evolution of the Old Fashioned, along
with a rather large compilation of recipes here:
http://www.drinkboy.com/Essays/RenewingAnOldFashion.html
My own thought is that even though the orange was not an "original" ingredient
in an Old Fashioned, the orange flavor goes really well with bourbon (or
rye)... but it is more the orange oils that really work well in this drink,
not the orange juice itself. And if you muddle the orange in the drink you end
up with a lot of pulp that just cloggs the straws (yeah, I sip my OF with
straws). So a little trick you might want to try is to slice off a half-dollar
sized piece of orange skin, squeeze it in half "into" the glass, then drop it
in, add the simple syrup and bitters, then muddle the skin a little with the
syrup and bitters, then add ice, then add bourbon, then stir well to combine.
Now that is an Old Fashioned worth admiration!
:->
-Robert Hess
www.DrinkBoy.com
www.MuseumOfTheAmericanCocktail.org
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