Ended up being a very long/shitty work night, so closing it out with my first Rusty Nail in years. Went with the wiki recipe since I haven’t made one in so long (4.5 to 2.5) - pretty good but I’ll have to experiment a bit. What is the preferred scotch here? I’m just using some Dewar’s 12 - don’t have any other scotch I’m willing to mix but may need to make a run to the store. I think it would be better with some more peat.
I agree it’s better with a quality smokey Scotch to cut through and play well with the Drambuie. I’ve made them with Laphroiag 10 when it was really cold (also skipped the ice). For the most part I’m hesitant to mix with things like that, and I gather you tend to feel the same. The cheapest peaty option I know of is Johnny Walker Black, but around here at least that’s only getting you down to $40 compared to $50 for Laphroiag…
There’s also an aftermarket bottling of one of the Islays called Finlagan, if you have someone in your state that carries it.
I feel better about mixing with good liquor if it's a classic, booze-forward cocktail since you can still taste the liquor. It's not like you're burying it in Coke.
For example, a friend got me a bottle of Whistle Pig Rye. It makes a damn fine Sazerac. I have no qualms about using it for that, every once in a while, as a treat.
Last night, the bartender made myself and a colleague a paper plane, with the addition of an egg white float on it. Holy cow. I mean, it makes sense; the point of the egg white on a whiskey sour is to cut and compliment the citrus, and the paper plane has lemon juice in it—but I’ve never had the float on a paper plane before.
That said, I’ll likely not have one without the egg white again.
That is all.
https://www.liquor.com/recipes/the-paper-plane/
”But in the end all of these ideas just manufacture new criminals when the problem isn't a lack of criminals.” -JRB
Never done the eg white on a paper plane...great idea!
Paper plane is absolutely one of my favorite modern cocktails. It's just perfectly balanced.
My current goal is to recreate the 8 amaro sazerac from Amar Y Amargo. It was really good. Again, a perfect new school interpretation of an old school cocktail.
I typically use egg white to cut down on the acidity in stuff like whiskey sours, and especially a White Lady (between the lemon juice and Cointreau, it's very astringent). I never thought I'd need it in a Paper Plane since the lemon juice is tempered by the other ingredients.
That said, I'm still gonna try it.