Okay. I’ll admit to an idiosyncrasy that this Dewey D. Cocktail illustrates perfectly. Maybe you do this too. Sometimes when I’m looking for inspiration I’ll flip through a beloved cookbook. The kind of cookbook that you’re just sure you’ve wrung dry like a sponge. Still, you love the book and it’s a pleasure to thumb through it. So you do.
Then, somehow, you come across a recipe you’ve never seen before. After countless reads over several years, this wonderful book provides an untested treat.
Coincidentally you have all the ingredients on hand. All of them. Here’s the idiosyncratic part– there’s just no way to stop me from making that recipe. No way.
Dewey D. Cocktail
This Dewey D. Cocktail is exactly all that (and more). It comes from perhaps my favorite cocktail book ever: The PDT Cocktail Book. It’s a riff on a Manhattan. A fact that taken by itself doesn’t make this drink particularly groundbreaking. There are are thousands of recipes for basic Manhattans on the web and possibly even more riffs. The premise for a Manhattan (as well as riffs like this Dewey D. Cocktail) is simple: 2 parts of whiskey, 1 part of sweet (vermouth) 2 or 3 good strong dashes of bitter (Angostura bitters) and of course ice. Ice is the much ignored but vital final element in a Manhattan and all its riffs.
However, the Dewey D. Cocktail takes this basic premise and adds an extra dash of sophistication in the form of a special sherry. The end result has all the hard-edged spice from the rye and bitters combination, as well as a sophisticated sherry “nut crunch”. It finishes most satisfyingly with the bright ping of citrus.
Here’s another idiosyncrasy– sometimes brands matter. The Dewey D. Cocktail is one of those times. The Lustau East India Sherry (a cream sherry with that nutty crunch I mentioned) has a deep, sweet, complex flavor that adds a bit of raisin to the drink and should not be substituted. Aperol, of course, is unique in its aperitivo/amari category and has no substitute. I’ll let you choose whatever rye you like (I used Rittenhouse 100). GREG
Ingredients
- 2 ounce rye whiskey
- 3/4 ounce Lustau East India sherry
- ½ ounce Aperol
- 2 dash Angostura bitters
- medium ice cubes (as needed)
- 1 orange twist (as garnish)
Directions
Combine the rye, sherry, Aperol, and Angostura in mixing glass half filled with medium ice cubes. Stir gently about 20 seconds. Julep strain into a chilled coupe or cocktail glass. Garnish with an orange twist; its oil expressed onto the surface and rubbed onto the rim.
I pretty much love anything with Aperol. So, should I start watching mad Men, I will forgot the martinis for this. (I assume they drink martinis in Mad Men…). I used to drink the Luastau when I had tapas at a cute little place in Portsmouth, NH.
I’m a big fan of the Manhattan so this one sounds wonderful to me. I’ll have to see if I can find the sherry in my area.
Funny, I immediately thought Dewey Decimal System, too! I’m a real fan of Manhattan’s (and Rittenhouse 100, BTW) so this drink is for me. Gotta go shopping for that sherry — sounds delish.
I love reading about new cocktails that I haven’t heard of before. This one sound fantastic-the sherry is intriguing too!
it is all sounds so exotic to me, and I love to try new things-)))
Yelena
I love that you do have a beloved and probably tattered favorite cookbook that still holds new discoveries.
OK, so now I want to enter all the Dewey Decimal numbers on my book collection… a tad obsessive, but then if the shoe fits… the truth is that when i was in grammar school I did just that. And then i carried all of my books out to my playhouse, which by that time I had begun calling “my library” which was in our backyard. Yes, I really did.
I certainly do know what you mean about missing a recipe in a book one has looked a thousand times. My, but i am glad this one caught your critical eye. I am utterly intrigued. I want one. You should be my neighbor, Greg. That would, I think be a very good set-up.
Someone told me the other day that most people don’t read others’ comments. I’m not one of those people so of course I’ve read the dissertation on the Dewey Decimal System and boy did that take me back. To being a volunteer in the library during middle school and also the frequent bike rides to the library for yet one more book.
But on to the cocktail…which sure sounds great to me. I’m a lover of all things Aperol; can’t wait to try this!
Dammit.…Wendy sidetracked my mind and now I can only think of the Dewey Decimal System. I was always a scofflaw and would re-shelve books myself, despite the signs telling me not to. See? That’s how I roll, badassery at the library.
But yeah, I found a recipe in the Big Bob Gibson’s Barbecue Book just last week and I was wondering how it had escaped me since 2009. I’ve gone through that book until it’s almost falling apart yet found something new.
As a librarian I can’t help but want to call this the Dewey Decimal cocktail; perhaps if I put in a miniature bookmark for a stirrer?
I’m not a librarian but I thought the same thing. Perhaps it was the maker’s intention… GREG