We arrived at this recipe after a suggestion by a visiting chef who mentioned that he thought our whiskey Old Fashioned would taste better with "Burnt Sugar" than the traditional demerara sugar. We were horrified at first! Burnt Sugar would taste like ashes, wouldn't it?
But after some research, we learned that "Burnt Sugar" was a traditional way to prepare sugar by melting it over high heat. It tastes like caramel. There's a famous recipe for Burnt Sugar Cake that used to be a traditional wedding cake for brides in the Laurel Highlands of Pennsylvania.
We started adding it and have never looked back. Our only regret is that we don't remember the name of the chef who suggested it.
We've also tried it with both cherries and orange peel. Just cherries. Just orange peel. We think that just the orange peel tastes best with our whiskey, but some customers prefer just the cherries or just both, so we're always happy to oblige their requests!
We've sampled it with more bitters and with less bitters. We think 2 dashes of each is the perfect amount.
A traditional Old Fashioned is a drink built in the glass and we're proud to prepare it that way. We have experimented with the "number of rotations" for the stirring spoon to obtain the proper dilution for our whiskey and we believe that 25 times is the best.
After all that, you can see that this recipe is only a suggestion. You may have to make "several variations" yourself to see where your tastes lie. (wink, wink)
LPS Old Fashioned
Place a Rocks Glass on the bar.
Add to this glass:
2 oz of LPS bourbon or rye whiskey
1/2 oz of burnt sugar syrup*
2 shakes angostura bitters
2 shakes orange angostura bitters
Gently add a large ice cube.
Stir 25 times.
Rub the outside of an orange peel around the rim. Fold the peel lengthwise and spritz the top of the ice cube with the orange oils that you get from squeezing the fold. Drop the folded peel into the cocktail.
*See recipe for Burnt Sugar syrup here.