Halve lemons, put them cut-side down on a screaming hot grill or a dry cast iron pan, and leave them until the faces are properly blackened in patches. Then juice them.
⭐ The juice that comes out is a different ingredient. Heat caramelises the sugars in the flesh and the cut edge of the pith, which rounds off the hard top note of raw lemon and leaves something smokier, deeper and slightly sweet. In a whiskey sour — a drink that is fundamentally an argument between sharp citrus and sweet whiskey — it removes most of the argument.
It also gets you noticeably more juice, because heat breaks down the segment walls.
This is a grill-side drink and it is best made in summer when the grill is already lit for something else.
Ingredients
- 2 oz bourbon
- 3/4 oz charred lemon juice (about 1 large lemon, see directions)
- 1/2 oz Simple Syrup
- 1 egg white, or 3/4 oz aquafaba (optional but recommended)
- 2 dashes Angostura bitters, to finish
- Ice
Directions
- Halve the lemons and char them. Grill or dry cast iron, high heat, cut side down, undisturbed for 3–4 minutes until the faces are well browned with black patches. Do not shuffle them around — you want contact.
- Let them cool enough to handle, then juice. Strain out the pulp.
- Dry shake — bourbon, charred lemon juice, syrup and egg white in a shaker with no ice, hard, for about 15 seconds. This is what builds the foam.
- Add ice and shake again, hard, 12–15 seconds.
- Double-strain into a chilled coupe, or over a large cube in a rocks glass.
- Let the foam settle for a few seconds, then dash the Angostura across the top. Drag a pick through it if you want a pattern.
Notes
🔴 This one gets SHAKEN, and that is not a contradiction of the Old Fashioned rule. The rule is: shake anything with citrus, dairy or egg in it; stir anything that is only spirits, sugar and bitters. This drink has citrus and egg white, so it shakes. An Old Fashioned has neither, so it never does.
Char a batch. The juice keeps a couple of days refrigerated and it is worth doing a dozen lemons while the grill is hot. It is also excellent in lemonade, and startling in a vinaigrette.
Egg white or not. Without it you have a cleaner, sharper drink; with it you get the silky texture and the white cap that the bitters float on. Aquafaba — the liquid from a tin of chickpeas — does the same job and keeps for a week.
⚠ Raw egg carries the usual small risk. Pasteurised whites are sold in cartons and behave identically.
Charred limes make a very good daiquiri by the same logic. Charred grapefruit goes into the Brown Derby.