{"id":1254,"date":"2021-03-26T13:48:19","date_gmt":"2021-03-26T20:48:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cuisinestupide.com\/?p=1254"},"modified":"2021-08-26T17:32:15","modified_gmt":"2021-08-27T00:32:15","slug":"in-search-of-old-nick","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cuisinestupide.com\/?p=1254","title":{"rendered":"In search of Old Nick"},"content":{"rendered":"

This week’s Sunday Special<\/a> comes with a mystery chaser.<\/p>\n

It arrives via Julie Bookman<\/a>, an outstanding writer and actor, a valued colleague to Chef Sin and me for many years, and a dear friend ever since. Reading our series of weekly cocktail discoveries, Julie shared the drink that has helped sustain her through the pandemic: the Old Nick, which combines rye whiskey and Drambuie with citrus juices and a dash of bitters.<\/p>\n

The concoction is, in a word, delicious. It won rave reviews throughout Chateau Cuisine Stupide, just as Julie predicted. So I set about gathering information on the origins of the Old Nick.<\/p>\n

And came up dry. (And not in the good Martini sense.)<\/p>\n

There’s absolutely no mention of such a cocktail in my ample, if not exhaustive, mixology library. An internet search turns up lots of references to Satan (nicknamed Old Scratch, Old Nick, Old Bogey, or even Old Nick Bogey<\/a> in the English Christian tradition); to a barleywine-style ale<\/a> with that name, formerly brewed by Young’s Pubs<\/a> in the U.K.; and to Old Nick Williams<\/a>, a North Carolina distillery established before the American revolution, killed by Prohibition, and re-launched by the founders’ descendants in 2014. The distillery, it seems, makes several different whiskeys, but not a rye among them.<\/p>\n

The website Culinary Lore features the Old Nick in a list of Drambuie cocktails<\/a> but doesn’t describe its history. Likewise, Rob Chirico’s 2005 book Field Guide to Cocktails<\/em><\/a>, where Julie found the recipe, lists the Old Nick among several others in a section on rye whiskey drinks but fails to delve into the drink’s lineage.<\/p>\n

Old Nick does have several prominent cousins. Rye and Drambuie are the basis for the Tetanus Shot<\/a> and the Donald Sutherland<\/a>, but neither includes fruit juice or bitters. A Rusty Nail<\/a> substitutes Scotch whiskey for rye, again without the fruit. A Zesty Irishman<\/a> has the lemon juice but also Triple Sec and a splash of ginger ale. But none of these is really an Old Nick.<\/p>\n

If you know anything about this cocktail, please let me know in the comments section below, or drop me a note at chefzuz@cuisinestupide.com<\/a>. Somebody somewhere invented the Old Nick, and that individual deserves some accolades.<\/p>\n

Unless, of course, it was Old Scratch himself.<\/p>\n

\n

\"\"<\/a><\/h3>\n

Old Nick<\/h3>\n

Courtesy of Julie Bookman<\/p>\n

2 ounces rye whiskey
\n1 ounce Drambuie
\n1\/2 ounce orange juice
\n1\/2 ounce lemon juice
\nDash bitters (3 drops)
\nTwist of lemon for garnish<\/p>\n

Chill a cocktail glass. <\/span><\/p>\n

Combine liquid ingredients. Shake with ice. <\/span>Strain mixture into chilled glass over ice.<\/p>\n

Add lemon twist. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This week’s Sunday Special comes with a mystery chaser. It arrives via Julie Bookman, an outstanding writer and actor, a valued colleague to Chef Sin and me for many years,… [Continue Reading]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1257,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[14,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1254","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sunday-specials-cocktails","category-beverages"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/cuisinestupide.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/oldnick-scaled.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2LarU-ke","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cuisinestupide.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1254","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cuisinestupide.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cuisinestupide.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cuisinestupide.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cuisinestupide.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1254"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/cuisinestupide.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1254\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1552,"href":"https:\/\/cuisinestupide.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1254\/revisions\/1552"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cuisinestupide.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1257"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cuisinestupide.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1254"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cuisinestupide.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1254"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cuisinestupide.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1254"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}