100 Best Old Fashioned Recipes (2024)

FAQs

Do you shake or stir Old Fashioned? ›

DO NOT shake an Old Fashioned, always stir it. This has nothing to do with temperature but everything to do with texture. Shaking it will add air and water, diluting the co*cktail too quickly. Since the drink is primarily spirit, all you have to do is gently stir with ice, allowing for a smooth, velvety texture.

The best old fashioned recipes call for sugar to balance the alcohol. I use simple syrup, which quickly dissolves and is simple to make. It also allows us to play around and use brown sugar instead of white sugar for the syrup, giving our co*cktail a caramel-like flavor that works well with whiskey or rum.

Best Budget: Buffalo Trace

Taylor Small Batch. Its price point and quality have made Buffalo Trace a favored standby at discerning co*cktail programs around the world. “My go-to bourbon for making an Old Fashioned is good-old Buffalo Trace,” says Stephanie Reading, bar director at Birdie G's in Santa Monica, California.

An Old Fashioned calls for two to three dashes of bitters—no more, no less—that are added to the glass once the sugar or simple syrup is in. While the amount seems small, having too many or too few dashes can dramatically change the taste makeup of the drink.

Chocolate or walnut bitters work well in this drink if you can find them. I also like Dale DeGroff's pimento bitters. Technique: The most balanced Old Fashioned is made by stirring the drink with ice for about 20 to 30 seconds and then straining that mix over fresh ice. Garnish: Orange twist, lemon twist, or both.

Use Rich Simple Syrup

The sugar cube is one Old Fashioned tradition that can definitely be skipped. While many recipes call for it, it offers no advantage over using a rich simple syrup and has several disadvantages. Most obviously, you have to find and buy sugar cubes and a muddler.

The old fashioned is a classic co*cktail that was invented in Louisville, KY. You can make it with bourbon, rye, or a blended whiskey. You can also substitute one sugar cube for the simple syrup.

Another bitters substitute? Any type of Amaro, a family of Italian herbal liqueurs that taste bitter (amaro means bitter in Italian). It encompasses a wide range of spirits, including Campari and the super-bitter Fernet-Branca. Fernet is so strong, you only need to use a few drops.

Sweet and strong with touches of citrus, the Old Fashioned never really gets old, especially when it's made with Maker's Mark^®.

Nearly a decade old, Knob Creek Bourbon is filled with robust flavors. When you stir up an Old Fashioned with Knob Creek 9 Year, you should expect a well-rounded drink. At 100 proof, this bourbon is still rich and sweet, a little fruity, and it will add notes of smooth vanilla and lush caramel to your Old Fashioned.

What whiskey goes best in Old Fashioned? ›

Best Overall Bourbon for an Old Fashioned: Old Grand Dad 114

Old Grand Dad 114 earns our distinction of the best bourbon for old fashioned. Orange zest, cinnamon, and burnt sugar are the signature tasting notes of Old Grand Dad 114 Proof .

A traditional Old Fashioned is made with regular oranges, so you can always do that! And really, any type of orange will taste great in this co*cktail.

By 1915 or so, even the Old-Fashioned had begun changing; this is the version most people know today. Be very conservative with the water at the end. Muddle carefully in the bottom of an old fashioned glass the sugar, Angostura, one orange, one cherry, and a splash of soda.

In an old-fashioned glass, muddle the sugar cube with the orange slice, bitters, and the cherries, if using. Add ice, top with the bourbon, and stir to mix. The cherries are a must. I personally love the Old Fashioned variant, the Sazerac, and Chris has a great video of that, too.

When mixing co*cktails, the process generally falls into two camps: shaken or stirred. An Old Fashioned is a stirred co*cktail. For a general rule of thumb, if a co*cktail contains only spirits, then you want to stir. If a co*cktail contains juice, dairy, or egg white, then you shake it.

If the co*cktail ingredients are mostly, or entirely, spirits (such as in a Manhattan, Martini or Negroni), you should stir. If a co*cktail includes juice (such as in a Margarita, Daiquiri or Cosmo), you should shake.

Why stir then? Stirring merely chills and dilutes a co*cktail whereas shaking additionally changes its texture. The ice, being violently shaken about inside the shaker, also aerates the drink with tiny air bubbles, which are held in suspension in the liquid, giving the co*cktail a cloudy appearance.

Stirring is the polar opposite of shaking. Instead of the ice being violently agitated, it's gently pushed around to create as little disruption as possible. This, naturally, has the inverse effect of shaking. It chills and dilutes more slowly, which means you'll have to stir for longer, typically 18-25 seconds.