Whiskey Cocktail at Cerro Gordo

Whiskey cocktail made with bitters and gum syrup, garnished with lemon peel. Served in fancy red wine glasses from Cerro Gordo

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City/Region: United States of America

Time Period: 1862

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Brent Underwood is living history every day in the ghost town of Cerro Gordo, an abandoned silver mine that used to be home to 4,000 people. Brent documents his journey of bringing the town back to life on his wonderful YouTube channel, Ghost Town Living, and I got to go up there and see the town in person and meet Brent.

While I don’t envy the rough living, Brent has the unique opportunity to live and work in a place that is a snapshot of history. Every discovery of artifacts or new insight into the context of time and place helps bring together a full, breathing picture of the past.

This cocktail from 1862 uses ingredients that would have been available at the time in Cerro Gordo, and could have been served at one of the town’s saloons. It’s definitely a cocktail for whiskey lovers, as it kind of ends up tasting like slightly sweetened whiskey.

“Whiskey Cocktail.
(Use small bar glass.)
3 or 4 dashes of gum syrup
2 do. bitters (Bogart’s).
1 wine-glass of whiskey, and a piece of lemon peel.
Fill one-third full of fine ice; shake and strain in a fancy red wine-glass.”

— The Bon Vivant’s Companion or How to Mix Drinks by Jerry Thomas, 1862

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Ingredients:

• 1 shot (1.5 ounces, 45 ml) whiskey, I used Jack Daniel’s
• 2 to 3 dashes bitters, Bogart’s if you can get it, I used Peychaud’s
• 3 dashes gum syrup
• 1 strip of lemon peel, about 1/2 inch (1 1/2 cm) wide and the length of the lemon

*You can find gum syrup, bitters, various whiskeys, and other liquors used on the channel in my curated collection at Curiada.

Instructions:

1. Combine the whiskey, bitters, and gum syrup in a shaker.
2. Twist the lemon peel over the shaker and drop it in.
3. Fill the shaker 1/3 of the way with ice, then shake until the cocktail is thoroughly chilled.
4. Strain it into a 19th century wine glass for extra authenticity, or the fancy cocktail glass of your choosing, garnish with the lemon peel, and serve it forth.

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