Bourbon, stirred
Manhattan
Barline 2,1,2,cc
The code is the shorthand off my printed menu; the Key tab decodes every letter.
- 2 oz Bourbon
- 1 oz Sweet vermouth
- 2 dashes Angostura bitters
Stir with ice until cold, then strain.
Coupe, cherry.
Taste
Two ounces of bourbon to one of sweet vermouth, so the whiskey leads. Two dashes of Angostura sit under the vermouth's grape and spice. Stirred, coupe, cherry. Corn, bark, and the cherry at the bottom.
History
The Manhattan is American whiskey, Italian vermouth, and bitters, first named in print in an 1882 Gotham Gossip column syndicated out of New York, and first given a full recipe in O.H. Byron's 1884 The Modern Bartenders' Guide. The Manhattan Club dinner for Samuel Tilden in 1874, later tied to Jennie Jerome, is a late story: she was in England with a month-old Winston Churchill. William F. Mulhall, writing in 1923, credited a man named Black who kept a place on Broadway; David Wondrich found George Black's Manhattan Inn near Houston Street in the 1870s. Early books call for rye or bourbon, often at equal parts. This menu files under bourbon, pours two to one, two dashes of Angostura, coupe, cherry.
Same shape, other bottles
The Martini family, with the bottle that changed.
- Martinigin and dry vermouth for bourbon and sweet vermouth
- Racquet Clubgin and dry vermouth for bourbon and sweet vermouth
- Rob Royscotch for bourbon
- Saratogarye and cognac for bourbon
- Fanciulliwith Fernet
- Dry Orange Martinigin and dry vermouth for bourbon and sweet vermouth
This is one drink on my home bar's menu. Tick the bottles you own and the menu lists which of all 185 drinks they pour.