Elevate Your Cocktail Game With This Irish Butter-Washed Old Fashioned Recipe

The old fashioned is an absolute classic cocktail, both in the sense that it has made the rounds for quite a while and that it fits the original billing of what defined a cocktail, back when the word was first coined: it consists primarily of spirits, sugar, and bitters. That's all it is, aside from a bit of fruit. The enduring quality of these original cocktails (the sazerac is said to be the very first cocktail) certainly has to do with their simplicity. But when a cocktail is renowned for consisting of precise measures of only a few ingredients, how does one improve upon it? Well, with butter, of course.

Fat washing is a technique in which liquid fats (in this case, melted butter) are mixed with liquor, imbuing the spirits with their flavors. The mixture is then cooled to solidify the fat, which is then strained out. The resulting booze returns to its original appearance while keeping the flavors of whichever fat was used.

In this recipe, we make use of two delightful Irish products to create a luxurious spin on an old fashioned. A classic old fashioned would be made with bourbon or rye, but in this recipe we substitute Irish whiskey, giving the cocktail a mellow flavor with notes of malt and caramel — which happen to pair beautifully with Irish butter. While most of the butter is removed, its essence remains, leaving a silkiness and trace of buttery flavor that is just wonderful.

This recipe is divided into two parts. First, you will make the Irish butter-washed whiskey. For that, you will need unsalted Irish butter and Irish whiskey. To make the cocktails (once the whiskey is ready), you will also need sugar, bitters, water, and a thick slice of orange peel. Once you have these ingredients together, you are ready to start mixing.

Melt the butter in a skillet over low heat (or in the microwave).

Transfer the butter to a ramekin and allow it to cool for 5 minutes.

Add the whiskey and butter to a wide-mouthed jar with a lid.

Shake the whiskey and butter mixture and store at room temperature for at least 4 hours.

Place the whiskey in the refrigerator or freezer for 2 hours, or until the fat has risen to the top and solidified.

Puncture the butter and strain the whiskey into another jar through a funnel or sieve lined with a coffee filter.

To make the cocktails, begin by stirring together the sugar, bitters, and water in a rocks glass until the sugar has dissolved. Then add the whiskey.

Twist the orange peel over the drink to express the oils, then drop it in as well.

Add a large ice cube to the glass and serve immediately.

For most purposes in the kitchen, salted butter can be used in place of unsalted butter, no problem. It is pretty rare to make anything that doesn't have at least a bit of salt in it, so you can always just adjust the recipe as needed, leaving out a few grains to make up for it. Cocktails are a little bit different, however.

In this recipe, we suggest using at least mostly unsalted butter. While there is a strong argument for how a bit of salt improves many cocktails, you don't want to overdo it. At most, we would suggest going with a 50-50 ratio of salted to unsalted. This combination will give you a touch of saltiness without accidentally turning your whiskey into brine. After all, you can always add a few drops of saline solution at the end to enhance the flavors. Just mix up a 4-1 ratio (by weight) of water to salt, and add it to the glass with a dropper.

Whichever butter you end up using, be sure you don't toss it out after the fat-washing is finished. Just as the butter adds its aromas to the whiskey, so too does the whiskey imbue the butter. After you've strained the booze, what you are left with is a cap of butter bursting with the vanilla, caramel, spice, and oak aromas of a good whiskey. This aromatic butter would be incredible in baked goods with delicate flavors, like pound cake or butter pecan cookies.

With this recipe, we are obviously going for an Irish theme. And if you're using Irish butter, you'd better pair it with an Irish whiskey, no? Fortunately, that doesn't just mean Jameson (though that is a fine choice). There are lots of very good Irish whiskeys out there that don't get quite the same attention as their Scottish counterparts. But for all you home mixologists out there, you needn't stick to our recipe exactly. There is no reason why you couldn't make this butter-washed old fashioned a bit more classic and use American butter and a pour of bourbon or rye whiskey. There are certainly lots of great bourbons out there for under $100.

Scotch whisky could also work wonderfully in this recipe, though we would suggest staying away from the peatier end of the scale. The incredibly smoky flavors of Islay Scotch would overwhelm the subtleties of the butter. Better to stick with a blended Scotch whose aromas are dominated by things that complement butter, like vanilla and caramel.

While Japanese food and butter might not necessarily go together in your mind, the northern island of Hokkaido is renowned both for its dairy products and for its excellent whisky. Why not try a Japanese whisky? You may have trouble sourcing real Japanese butter for the butter-washing process, but that's alright. And you can always snack on some Hokkaido Butter flavored potato snacks while you sip, to get the full experience.