Whiskey Milk Punch
current situation: this is the only way I drink whiskey
The night before Thanksgiving. The turkey is already seasoned and sitting in the fridge, everything is prepped, and tomorrow this house is going to be full of people. Tonight it is quiet. That is when I make this.
And this is the only way I drink whiskey. Not neat, not on the rocks, not in an old fashioned. In a mug, with milk. It is a milk punch, it is older than almost everything else on this site, and they have been drinking it at Christmas in New Orleans for about two hundred years.
The whiskey is Jack Daniel's Old No. 7 and I am not going to pretend otherwise. This is not a drink that wants a bottle you are precious about. The milk softens everything and a twelve-year single barrel would be wasted in it.
The milk is where I do not compromise. Alexandre Eco Dairy, A2/A2 organic, 4% whole. Four percent butterfat, cream on the top, cows out on grass. That is not the same liquid as the thin stuff in the plastic jug, and in a drink that is three quarters milk you taste it straight away. Change one thing in this recipe and change the milk.
It is a six week drink. Thanksgiving eve one year, five days after I put the Christmas lights up over the pepper plants the next. Then the carton goes back to being for coffee and I do not think about it again until November.
- Makes
- 2 mugs
- Hands-on
- 5 minutes
- Milk
- 4% whole, A2 organic
- Season
- Thanksgiving to Christmas
What you need
The two that matter
- 4 oz Tennessee whiskey or bourbon — Jack Daniel's Old No. 7 is what is in the picture
- 12 oz whole milk, as rich as you can buy — 4% butterfat, organic, cream on the top
The rest
- 2 tbsp powdered sugar — powdered, not granulated
- 1 tsp vanilla extract, the real stuff
- A pinch of salt
- Plenty of ice, for shaking
- Ground cinnamon or nutmeg, over the top
- Whipped cream, if it is that kind of night
How it goes
1 — Buy the better milk and do not argue about it
This drink is three quarters milk. Whole milk at 4% with the cream on top gives you something that coats the glass; 2% gives you a thin grey drink that tastes of whiskey and water. A2 organic from a dairy that names itself on the carton is the version in the photograph and it is worth the extra few dollars once a year.
2 — Powdered sugar, not granulated
Granulated sugar will not dissolve in cold milk. It sits in the bottom of the glass and you get a sweet mouthful at the end and nothing before it. Powdered sugar has cornflour in it, which also thickens the drink very slightly, which is not an accident.
pro tip — No powdered sugar in the house? Make a simple syrup — equal sugar and hot water, cooled. Never dump granulated sugar into cold milk.
3 — Everything into a shaker with a lot of ice
Whiskey, milk, sugar, vanilla and the pinch of salt. Fill it with ice. The salt is not optional — a few grains make the vanilla and the dairy taste like more of themselves.
4 — Shake it hard, fifteen seconds
Properly hard, until the outside of the shaker hurts to hold. You are chilling it, diluting it about twenty percent, and whipping a little air into the milk so it comes out with a soft head on it rather than flat.
5 — Strain it, do not tip the ice in
Through the strainer into a cold mug or glass. The ice has done its job; leave it behind. Shaken ice left in the drink keeps melting and in ten minutes you have milky water.
6 — Cinnamon over the top, from a height
Dusted across the surface so it sits there. Nutmeg is the New Orleans way and cinnamon is what I use. Grate it fresh if you have the whole spice — the pre-ground tin is a different and duller thing.
7 — Whipped cream if you are going that way
One of the two mugs in the picture has it and one does not, which is about the right ratio. Soft peaks, spooned on, cinnamon over that.
8 — Drink it cold, through a straw, straight away
It separates if it stands. Ten minutes in and the milk starts to settle out from the whiskey, and no amount of stirring puts it back the way it was.
What has been standing next to it
Six weeks a year and then the carton goes back to being for coffee. Marge approves. LFG.