Pisco sour

This classic Peruvian cocktail recipe is particularly useful if you have both a lemon tree and chickens producing fresh eggs!

A pisco sour in a fancy crystal glass, with a thin layer of white foam on top

Here's the recipe I've landed on, after some experimentation.

We've found that these measurements make enough for two drinks, though other recipes online suggest this is the right amount for a single serving.

It turns out different brands of pisco make very different flavored drinks! We have been enjoying trying a variety here.

Put the glasses in the ice box to chill. I like using quite fancy looking crystal stemmed glasses I found in an antiques shop.

Dry shake the egg white, lemon juice and simple syrup (dry shaking means shaking without ice). About ten seconds of vigorous shaking works for me - the result should be a white foam.

Then add the pisco and some ice - about 6 cubes works well. Shake vigorously for about 15 seconds - the trick with shaking is to try to get the ice to travel the full volume of the shaker.

Strain into chilled glasses.

Finish with several drops of bitters on top of the foam. It's fun to make two drinks and differ only the bitters in order to compare them.

Angostura is traditional. I really like Dashfire Old Fashioned bitters as an alternative - partly because the dropper makes them easy to apply.

I tried this with Scrappy's cardamom bitters recently which gave an interestingly different aromatic finish.

Created 2022-10-08T07:55:26-07:00, updated 2024-07-15T21:15:48-07:00 · History · Edit