Cocktail Hour

The Gin Sour.

Continuing on last week's sour theme, today we discuss the Gin Sour. A very traditional cocktail, popular before Prohibition, this cocktail's precise history is uncertain. It was mentioned as far back as 1862 in Jerry "The Professor" Thomas' The Bar-Tender's Guide.

Again, it is worth mentioning that most modern recipes skip the egg white. Presumably over 'elf & safety concerns, but I urge you not to. The addition of egg white makes for a much smoother cocktail.

The original used soda water in the simple syrup, to my mind making the cocktail half Gin Fizz half Sour. The recipe here uses normal simple syrup.

Traditionally, gin sours were made with Old Tom gin - a sweeter style of gin popular in the 18th century and one that is making rather a comeback today. Fear not if you don't have it, one of the more botanical gins like Hendricks will work just as well.

Ingredients:

50ml Gin

25ml Lemon Juice

15ml Simple Syrup

egg white (I normally use 1 egg white for 2 cocktails)

Lemon wedge to garnish.

Equipment:

Shaker

Short glass, chilled

Procedure:

Dry shake the egg white, gin, lemon juice and syrup.

Add 2 cubes of ice and shake hard.

Strain over ice in to a short glass

Garnish with a lemon wedge & serve

Chin chin!