Brown Butter Old Fashioned

I'm making a variation of the traditional Old Fashioned by using Brown Butter Whiskey to add a richer, more luxurious flavour and texture to this classic whiskey cocktail. Fat-washing whiskey with browned-butter adds texture, creaminess, and richness to whiskey that enhances any cocktail.

What is Fat-Washing?

Fat-washing spirits is simply the process of blending a fat and a spirit to incorporate the flavour of the fat into the spirit. This can be achieved with any fat and any spirit, but clearly you will want to choose a fat and a spirit that will complement each other, such as browned-butter and whiskey, coconut oil and rum, or olive oil and gin.

The process of fat washing is similar for any fat-spirit combination. Follow these simple steps to Fat-Wash Whisky with Brown Butter to enhance your cocktails.

Brown Butter Old Fashioned Ingredients

Sugar or Simple Syrup - Some recipes call for sugar with water muddled in the bottom of the glass, others call for simple syrup. If you use sugar, make sure the sugar is completely dissolved. If using simple syrup, replace the sugar and water with 2 teaspoons simple syrup.

Angostura bitters - bitters are a blend of herbs, spices, roots and other flavour compound mixed with alcohol. They are used in small quantities, a few dashes, to enhance the flavour cocktails. Angostura bitters are the most widely used bitters and add a spicey, slightly sweet flavour.

Whisky - Most recipes call for Bourbon in an Old Fashioned, but as with most cocktail recipes, I treat them as a guideline. Many people will use Rye, or Scotch. I’m using Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Whiskey, which is pretty much a bourbon anyway, just not marketed as such. Jack Daniel’s meets all the requirements to be called bourbon, but it’s made in Tennessee according to the ‘Lincoln County Process’, so it’s a Tennessee Whiskey. That being said, use whatever whisky you like.

Orange twist - a twist is a thin slice of the skin of the fruit. The skin is twisted over the top of the drink to add the fragrant oils from the skin to the arom and flavour of the cocktail.

Luxardo cherries - Luxardo cherries are an upscale brand of maraschino cherries. The cherries are soaked in Luxardo marasca cherry syrup and are a huge upgrade over the bright red, sickeningly sweet, artifical-looking maraschino cherries you usually see.