Fac Potiones Excellens

Tipples → Mixed Drinks → Slings → Cocktails → Plain Cocktails

Old-fashioned Barney French Cocktail

:

• Recipes for Mixed Drinks. New York; Hugo Ensslin, 1917

This drink is much like the fruit-accented Old-fashioned Hoffman House Cocktail of about a decade earlier. But, it calls for different bitters and a different type of American whiskey.

The drink seems to have been named after Bernard "Barney" French, a Manhattan liquor dealer who was active in that place and profession from the 1880's through the moment Prohibition when into effect.

The original recipe for this drink calls for Cascade^™ whiskey. That whiskey today goes under the brandname of the founder, George Dickel. Use that, a different Tennessee whiskey, or a Bourbon whiskey that is charcoal filtered, like Evan Williams^™ Black Label, for this drink.

As a separate, small matter, I acknowledge that George Dickel, born Georg Dickel, was an immigrant from Germany that spent his entire life as a distiller trying to tell Americans that they spelled 'whiskey' the wrong, Irish way. He used the Scottish spelling. He was entitled to his opinion – even though he was neither American, Scottish, nor Irish. As an American, I don't take my lessons in whiskey spelling from a German.

Compare and contrast with the Old-fashioned Hoffman House Cocktail, and the Old-fashioned Whiskey Cocktail.

.

Full Recipe

Have the folowwing items:

Service-ware

• 6 fl-oz. old-fashioned glass tumbler
    #1: 6 ½ fl-oz. Stölzle^™ 350-00-47
    #2: 7 fl-oz. old-fashioned glass tumbler^*
• garniture skewer
    #1: stainless steel, with spiral^*
• 4-inch demitasse spoon
  #1: six-spoon set^*
• 4-inch beverage napkin
    #1: cotton (five times washable)^*
    #2: paper^*

Tools

• fetcher spoon
    #1: stainless steel, with hole^*
• cuting board
    #1: composite board (no plastic)^*
• paring knife
    #1: culinary school issue^*
• sugar tongs
    #1: stainless steel^*
• jigger-and-pony measure
  [2 fl-oz. by 1 fl-oz. / ~60 ml. by ~30 ml.]
    #1: stainless double-bell^*
    #2: twentieth century-style^*
    #3: Japanese-style^*
• 3-to-1 split pony
  [¾ fl-oz. by ¼ fl-oz. / ~22.5 ml. by ~7.5 ml.]
    #1: Liberty Ware Jig-1434
• barspoon with disc
    #1: twelve-inch stainless^*
• ice tongs
    #1: steel, with teeth^*

Ingredients

• preserved cherries
    #1: Luxardo^™ Marasche^*
    #2: Penninsula^™ Premium American Cherries^*
• lemon (whole, for zest-cutting)
  (Citrus limon: Eureka or Santa Theresa)
• Peychaud's^™ bitters
• old-fashioned lump white sugar
  (must be dense – do not use modern sugar cubes)
    #1: French import^*
• common orange (cut into membrane-free suprèmes)
   (Citrus sinensis: Valencia or Navel)
• water
  (spring, or purified)
• service ice
    #1: cubes ~1¼ inches per side^*
• Tennessee-style whiskey

Instructions

1. Use the fetcher spoon to help skewer a preserved cherry most the length through and reserve it.
2. Cut a ~1” wide and ~3” long strip of lemon zest with minimal pith and reserve it.
3. Set the old-fashioned tumbler in the work area. Into it goes:
• • Peychaud's^™ bitters — 2 dashes
   [1 scruplespoonfull / ¼ tsp. / ~1.25 ml.]
• • sugar — 1 lump
   (the size is not very important – see step #7)
• • common orange — 1 suprèmed segment
 [¼ fl-oz. / ~7.5 ml.]
4. Use the disc of the barspoon, or a bar masher, to crush the above into cocktail water without fully dissolving the sugar.
5. Remove the tool and take the old-fashioned tumbler to the ice. Into it is added:
• • service ice — 1 cube
6. Return the old-fashioned tumbler to the work area. Into it is added:
• • Tennessee-style whiskey — 1 jiggerfull
   [2 poniesfull / 2 fl-oz. / ~60 ml.]
• • optional service ice — 2^nd cube (if desired)
7. Garnish the drink with:
• • preserved cherry (reserved in step #2) — 1
   (placed in the drink with the handle or knob of the skewer on the rim).
• • lemon zest (reserved in step #2) — 1 strip
   (twisted zest-side-down over the drink, rubbed on the rim, and put into the drink).
8. Insert the demitasse spoon. Do not stir. Let the drinker stir if more sweetness is desired.
9. Serve the drink on the napkin, with the spoon standing out at three o'cloock (from the drinker's point of view).

* When using Amazon links from this site, a very small fraction might be paid to Elemental Mixology without affecting the purchase price.