New Classics: Penicillin
Even a panacea needs the occasional update.
The Cthulhu glass is just bonus points.
This is another Sam Ross creation, this one from 2005 during his earlier days at Milk & Honey. For those who may not recall, Sam Ross is a bartender — originally from Melbourne, Australia — who came to New York circa 2003 and joined Sasha Petraske’s burgeoning craft cocktail empire. He helped open classic bars like Little Branch and East Side Company Bar, he worked some shifts with Audrey Saunders at her famous Pegu Club, he took over the bar program at Milk & Honey, and after Milk & Honey closed down he renovated the space and turned it into the now wildly popular Attaboy. The man is a veritable legend in the NYC craft cocktail scene, and his influence is evident in the craft.
The penicillin is basically a sour template; I hesitate to call it a whiskey sour, because a whiskey sour should have some egg white (in my opinion, your opinion may vary). The base is scotch, sweetened with honey and ginger, balanced with lemon, and accented with smoky single malt.
As always, you can click on this link right here to skip to the end of this post and just get the recipe. Otherwise, please scroll down!
The Premise
Check out this rogues’ gallery.
As I alluded to above, this is kind of a sour template. What is a sour template? I’ll do another post in the future about the evolution of the sour, but the basic template is:
2 ounces spirit
3/4 ounces sweetener
3/4 ounces acid
Obviously, you play with this a little as you use different ingredients. If you’re using a liqueur for your sugar, you might have to add more of it and take down the base spirit a little so the final drink isn’t too over the top. If you’re using a sweeter spirit (like rum or brandy), you might have to up the acid a little. Each recipe is a little different.
Why’s it called a penicillin? I haven’t been able to find any independent confirmation of that. However, my personal theory is that it’s kind of a joke by Sam Ross. Once upon a time, booze was used medicinally; a toddy as medicine for a cold, brandy for hypothermia, bitters to strengthen the body, etc. Honey, ginger, and lemon are all considered pretty good for you; honey has antiseptic qualities and can purportedly reduce allergy symptoms, ginger is supposed to be good for digestion, lemon has a lot vitamin C which is good for your immune system.
So basically, he’s combining a bunch of stuff that’s supposedly medicinal, so now it’s a panacea. Penicillin.
The Syrups
There’s something threatening about that little knob of ginger there, isn’t there?
The sweetness in this comes from either a honey-ginger syrup, or a honey syrup and a ginger syrup. You could absolutely infuse ginger into a honey syrup, but I prefer to make two different syrups. It’ll give you more options in the future when you go to use them for other drinks.
The honey syrup is really easy: basically mix three parts honey with one part hot water until they’re just combined. If you’re using a stronger honey, you could drop that ratio to 2:1 or even 1:1, but I really like how honey-ish that syrup is at 3:1.
The ginger syrup isn’t difficult either; make a simple syrup (I use raw sugar), and simmer peeled and thinly sliced ginger in it for about 15-20 minutes. Strain out the solids. If you’re feeling brave, you can make ginger juice and make a syrup with that in place of some of the water. This is a bit harder, but much more gingery. Up to you how much spice you like and how bothered you are.
The sweetness in this recipe is going to be equal parts honey and ginger, but you can always tweak it to your liking. I find I quite like the ginger flavor in there and the honey syrup I make is very honey, so at home I’ll often go twice as much ginger as honey to let both of those flavors shine through better, rather than being dominated by the honey. Again, try one, tweak it to your liking, then try it again. You’ll get there, bud!
The Booze
It’s like a seal! It’s got like a little seal face and a little flipper coming off the back.
This is a Scotch drink — that is to say, whiskey from Scotland. The recipe calls specifically for blended Scotch, but is otherwise pretty vague about what kind to use. I used Monkey Shoulder in this, because it is full-bodied, pretty balanced, and only lightly sweet. Copper Dog would work alright (it’s a bit sweet for my taste), and I’ve made a great version of this with Famous Grouse. I’d avoid any overly smoky or peaty blends like Great King St. or something like that, since it’d take away from the float. Ultimately, your favorite whiskey is going to make your favorite drink.
It’s pronounced “la-froig,” I think. It’s Scottish for “the frog.” (It’s definitely not.)
For the float, you want something very smoky. A single malt from Islay is definitely going to be the way to go; you could definitely use Lagavulin, but I like Laphroiag. Like it says on the bottle, “It’s like kissing a mermaid that just ate barbecue.”
Okay! Now that that’s sorted, let’s do the recipe.
The Good Part (The Recipe)
2 ounces blended Scotch (like Monkey Shoulder)
3/4 ounce fresh lemon juice
3/8 ounce honey syrup
3/8 ounce ginger syrup
Float of smoky single malt Scotch (like Laphroiag)
Garnish of candied ginger and lemon peel/slice (optional)
Combine blended Scotch, lemon juice, and syrups in a shaker tin. Add ice and shake for about 10 seconds.
Double-strain over a large rock of ice in a double old-fashioned glass.
Using the back of a spoon, float smoky single malt over top of drink. Garnish with candied ginger and (optionally) lemon. Serve immediately.
I’m happy with that.
That’s it! Once you have the ingredients, it’s not a hard cocktail, but it’s amazing and really makes an impression. Serve this at a cocktail party and watch your friends realize they might like Scotch! Or shake it up for yourself to warm you on a cold winter’s night. Whatever you do, make sure you give it a sniff first to savor that amazing smoky aroma.
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