Olive Oil Whisky Sour
A modern recipe that brings olive oil into a cocktail: the oil is combined with whisky in the cold, then strained off.
- Time
- 20 minutes
- Serves
- 1 glass
- Level
- Medium
- Cuisine
- Cocktail
⚠ Not to be sold or served to anyone under 18. This page is a recipe record; it does not encourage the consumption of alcohol. Do not drink if you will be driving, if you are pregnant, or if you take medication that interacts with alcohol.
At the centre of this recipe is a technique: fat-washing. When a fat is mixed with spirit and then frozen, it solidifies and separates — but part of its aromatic compounds remain dissolved in the alcohol. The drink ends up with the flavour of the fat but none of its texture.
The method spread through the New York bar scene in the 2000s, first tried with bacon fat; the olive oil version carries the same logic to the Mediterranean. To the lemon-and-sugar balance of a whiskey sour it adds the fruity, faintly bitter layer of extra virgin.
Directions
- Combine the whisky and olive oil in a sealed jar, shake, and leave at room temperature for 2 hours.
- Put the jar in the freezer until the oil solidifies (about 4 hours).
- Lift off the solid layer of fat with a spoon and pass the rest through a fine strainer. ⚠ This method is called fat-washing: the aroma of the oil stays in the liquid, its texture does not.
- Put ice, the fat-washed whisky, lemon juice and sugar syrup into a shaker.
- Shake hard for 15 seconds.
- Strain into an ice-filled glass.
- Add a sprig of rosemary, clapped once between the palms, if you like.
Tips & storage
Two hours at room temperature, four in the freezer. Do not shorten either: the first lets the aroma pass into the spirit, the second solidifies the fat completely. Half-set fat slips through the strainer and clouds the drink.
If a fine sieve isn't enough, use a coffee filter. For a clear result, strain in two stages — lift off the solid layer with a spoon first, then filter.
This step is done in advance. Fat-washed whiskey keeps for weeks in a bottle in the fridge. There is no waiting when you come to make the drink; prepare it once and use it many times.
Here, shaking is correct. Unlike a martini, the sour family is shaken: the lemon juice and sugar syrup need aerating. Fifteen seconds, hard.
Make your own sugar syrup. Equal weights of sugar and hot water, stirred and cooled. Shop-bought syrups are generally sweeter and upset the balance.
Rosemary is optional but must be squeezed. A sprig dropped straight in gives no scent; one squeeze releases the volatile oils.
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