Boston Sour – Trader Vic’s Recipe

What Is The Difference Between The Boston Sour And The Whiskey Sour?

There is debate whether to call this recipe a Whiskey Sour or a Boston Sour. I will go with Boston Sour, and here is why. 1). I can find no cocktail books that list adding egg whites to a whiskey sour till the 1950s (Read the section below for more detailed information about when egg whites started being used in sours). Whiskey sours were traditionally just lemon juice, sugar, and bourbon. Adding egg whites to cocktails was considered girly, and no machismo man would want to be seen ordering a girly whiskey sour. Even if it made them feel super cute. 2). Traditionally cocktails with egg white had fun, unique names to indicate that they were not a standard sour—white lady, pink lady, clover club, rattlesnake, million dollar cocktail, etc. The list goes on and on, but the name was always something other than “base spirit” sour. 3). Egg whites were listed as optional/non-traditional in sours from the 1950s -to the 1960s, and I can’t find a recipe that says explicitly you must egg whites till the 1970s. The 1972 edition of Trader Vic’s Bartender’s Guide is the oldest use of the name Boston Sour I could find in a publication that does not list egg whites as optional. If it’s in a book older than that, then it’s one I don’t have. I will say, though, I combed through a little over 100 books published between 1880 and 1972, looking for the Boston Sour, the first one I found.

So the TLDR of this is, Whiskey sours are not traditionally made with egg whites, and the Boston Sour is the first version of this recipe I found to say you must use egg whites and that they are not optional.

To Add Egg Whites Or Not To Add Egg Whites

Historically speaking, if a cocktail was a simple sour, it did not have egg whites. Yes, there were cocktails like the clover club or pink lady that had egg whites, or you can go back even further to the Fizz-style cocktails from the 1880s that had egg whites. But not until the early 1950s am I able to find anyone using egg whites in a cocktail labeled a Sour. Sour cocktails before the 1950s that used egg whites in this way all seemed to have fun names and were presented as cocktails for the ladies. In the 1930s or 40s, if a man ordered a whiskey sour and were handed one with egg whites, he would probably be offended or think the bartender mixed his drink up with some women’s at the bar. I looked through maybe 100+ books ranging from the 1880s to the late 1960s, which was pretty consistently what I found.

The earliest use of egg whites in a standard sour I could find was from King Cocktail by Eddie Clark. In 1947 Eddie Clark was the successor head bartender to Harry Craddock at the Savoy. The 1955 official British Bartenders union cocktail book, The UKBG, also mentions using egg whites in sours, but both books say they are optional and not traditional. Assumedly egg whites were added upon request and not the usual way a whiskey sour was made. Keep in mind Harry Craddock, 1920 – the 40s, did not make his sours with egg whites. All those cocktails had different fun names. Eddie Clark even grouped those fun cocktails in his book’s “For ladies only” section.

How To Get Great Foam On Cocktails With Egg Whites.

Egg Whites are challenging to get right in cocktails. Everyone struggles with them at some point, and bartenders search for any way to make whipping them into a fluffy meringue easier. Henry Ramos hired “shaker boys” to shake for him. Some use the dry shake or reverse dry shake, others swear by only using one large ice cube, and some say you have to shake till your arms fall off. The method I like is called the Saxe Shake, and De Forest Saxe invented it in the 1880s.

The Saxe Shake is largely unknown in the cocktail world because De Forest Saxe was a soda fountain operator in Chicago, Illinois. His 1890 book “Saxe’s New Guide Hints to Soda Water Dispensers” details his shaking technique for egg drinks that produces the best foam and can be accomplished with minimal effort. Saxe states to shake drinks with eggs with only one chestnut-sized ice cube. An Ice cube from a standard ice tray is about chestnut-sized, so one or two small cubes will work. Then shake until the ice fully melts, and pour into the serving glass without straining. The small amount of ice is just enough to cool and dilute the drink, and since there are no remaining bits of ice left in the shaker, there is nothing to strain. Passing the mixture through a strainer destroys most of the bubbles you worked so hard to make. As you add soda water, the escaping carbon dioxide fills the tiny bubbles in the drink, forcing them to expand and form a large fluffy foam. Give it a try. Using the Saxe Shake, I have turned out Ramos Gin Fizzes as fast and efficiently as any other shaken cocktail with excellent results.

Recipe Resources

• 1972 Trader Vics Bartender’s Guide – Bergeron