Shaking

What shaking does

Shaking seals the ingredients, ice and air inside one metal tin and throws them against each other. Three things happen at once. The liquid falls from room temperature to near freezing. Melting ice adds water, usually somewhere between twenty and thirty per cent of the drink. The impact beats fine bubbles into the mixture, which is why a shaken drink arrives under a pale, short-lived haze of air and ice shards.

Dilution is easy to read as loss. It is not. Classic recipes are balanced for the drink as it leaves the shaker; without that water, the acid and the spirit both read sharp. The skill in shaking is therefore control rather than force: how much ice, and for how long.

When to shake

• Recipes with citrus juice, such as the Daiquiri or the Whiskey Sour.
• Recipes with dairy, cream, egg or fruit purée, which need emulsion and air.
• Recipes with honey or heavy syrup, which need force to disperse evenly.
• Ingredients of very different densities that would otherwise settle into bands.

Drinks made only of spirits and fortified wines are stirred instead. Shaking leaves them cloudy and strips the quiet, viscous texture they are built for.

Never shake anything carbonated. Soda, tonic, sparkling wine and ginger ale build pressure instantly in a sealed tin and can force it open. Carbonated ingredients always go into the glass last.

Tools

A Boston shaker (two tins, one large and one small) or a three-piece shaker; a Hawthorne strainer; a fine-mesh strainer for double straining; and large, dry ice straight from the freezer.

Steps

1. Chill the serving glass first: fill it with ice water and leave it.
2. Measure in every ingredient except anything carbonated.
3. Fill the tin about two-thirds with large, dry cubes.
4. Seal it and shake rhythmically at an angle in front of you for about ten to fifteen seconds, until the tin frosts.
5. Strain at once. Add a fine-mesh strainer when the drink carries pulp, ice shards or egg white.
6. Empty the serving glass, pour, then add any carbonated ingredient and the garnish.

Common mistakes

• Small or half-melted ice. Dilution runs away and the drink turns watery.
• Shaking too long. Ten to fifteen seconds is the usual range; beyond it you are only adding water.
• Straining carelessly. Stray ice keeps melting in the glass.
• Shaking carbonated ingredients. Dangerous, and the bubbles are lost anyway.
• Raw egg white. Use fresh, refrigerated eggs, and note that people who are pregnant, very young, elderly or otherwise vulnerable should avoid uncooked egg. See dry shaking.

Examples in the catalogue

The Daiquiri is the template: spirit, citrus and sugar made whole by the shake. The Margarita and the Sidecar are the same structure with a different base and an orange liqueur. The White Lady shows how the matte, aerated surface a shake leaves behind defines the look of the drink: the technique is visible before the first sip.