This summer, Quentin Tarantino unleashed his ninth film onto the world, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, to a mix of high praise and scattered controversy. The film is the highest-grossing non-sequel original story of the summer having grossed more than $239.8 million worldwide as of late August and joins film classics such as Argo, Who Framed Roger Rabbit? and La La Land as one of the top-grossing movies about Hollywood and the movie industry.
The film still has not left theaters and has the opportunity to continue to perform — that is certainly something to drink to.
We mention the film because the story centers around washed-up TV actor Rick Dalton, played with slurry aplomb by Leonardo DiCaprio, coming to grips with his stature in Hollywood of the late-sixties, a Hollywood he has trouble recognizing and finding his place in.
Over the course of the movie, Dalton meets with agents, argues with a stunt coordinator and practices his lines, usually with a drink in his hand.
Though he never says it out loud, even a bar novice could recognize the Whiskey Sour in its several forms in which it is served to Dalton throughout the film.
First, we see him sipping a nuclear green concoction with a cherry and two cocktail straws protruding from the ample crushed ice, from which Rick steadily sips the classic concoction.
In another scene, Dalton fills a German stein with ice cubes, an egg white, what appears to be some lemon juice and several healthy pours from a comically large bottle of whiskey.
The whiskey sour is a classic cocktail that is made up of about five simple ingredients: whiskey, egg whites, lemon juice, simple syrup, and ice. It can also be quickly made with store-bought sour mix- which gives it that nuclear green glow, some whiskey of your choice and maraschino cherries and fresh orange slices for garnish.
The sour family of cocktails, think pretty much any liquor plus lemon and/or lime juice, has been around since at least the 17th century by British sailors to fight scurvy.
The drink first appears in writing in the 1860s and in 1879, the Atlanta Daily Constitution announced, “When American meets American then comes the whisky sour.”
This makes it a fitting drink for our American-as-apple-pie hero, Rick Dalton.
Anyway, without further adieu, skip the pre-packaged sour mix version and make one the way Dalton prefers his with egg whites.
Ingredients:
• whiskey (we recommend bourbon or rye)
• simple syrup
• fresh-squeezed lemon juice
• eggs
• Maraschino cherries and orange or lemon slices for garnish.
Combine 2 oz. of whiskey, 2/3 oz. of lemon juice, half an egg white and a teaspoon or two of simple syrup in a cocktail shaker with ice. Shake well and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish as you see fit with maraschino cherries, lemon wedges and cuts of orange.
