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Bourbon Milk Punch, to Your Taste
I first encountered Milk Punch through Paul Harrington and Laura Moorhead’s aptly named guide, Cocktail – The Drinks Bible for the 21st Century, published in 1998 and filled with historical booze concoctions mostly obscured by the dark ages of Sex on the Beach and Long Island iced tea of the 80s and early 90s. Though beginning to show its age, this new early tipplers tome was one of the first to spotlight a revival in the craft of drink mixing.
Their recipe calls for an indecent three ounces of bourbon per drink with an equal amount of milk, one-half teaspoon dark rum, one tablespoon simple syrup and a dusting of nutmeg. I made them this way for quite awhile and you can well imagine how drunk I must have been. I even began adding crushed ice, as the high octane drink occasionally took some effort to finish.
As more enthusiasts mined history for the origins of classic cocktails like Milk Punch and began sharing their knowledge through books and blogs, it became evident that the recipe I was using was more of a deviation than a standard. It seems a more accurate milk punch is made with brandy (Harrington calls this version a Tiger’s Milk) and balances the booze out for easier drinking.
But I like bourbon. And the charred barrel flavors of vanilla and marshmallow mix particularly well with milk. So I mixed and drank, drank and mixed, and discovered the proportions that do me right.
This drink goes particularly well with the inside warmth and soft light of autumn and winter holidays. Egg nog be damned. Here is my recipe, with notes on how to personalize it to suit your own taste.
Bourbon Milk Punch
The base bourbon ~ 2 ounces: You can’t go wrong with Buffalo Trace here. Its intense charred oak characteristics may not make the best Manhattan but they pair well with milk.
The milk ~ 3 ounces: I am lucky enough to get a gallon raw milk share from a local farmer every week. It’s rich and creamy and makes a devastating milk punch. Calder’s Dairy natural milk is similar in consistency and a fine choice. For a special occasion, you can use equal amounts half-and-half and 2%, but I wouldn’t go any heavier on the cream as the drink is likely to become cumbersome. Of course, you can try skim milk but if you’re already drinking booze you might as well allow yourself all the pleasures. Almond or rice milk might actually work well but I suspect some alteration of ingredient measures would be called for.
The sweetener ~ 2 teaspoons: Simple syrup is fine. I like to use maple syrup. Even though its nutty sweetness isn’t obvious in a sip, it adds another layer of flavor.
More flavor ~ 2 teaspoons: I used Meyer’s Dark Rum for a good time but I was never particularly pleased with its raw character. Like the maple syrup, St. Elizabeth Allspice Dram will add even more depth without being intrusive. Alternately, a couple of dashes of vanilla extract will boost flavor in a more obvious way and is a good choice for those annoying guests who profess to find complex adult drinks objectionable.
The mixing: Shake with cracked ice and pour into a chilled old-fashioned glass with three to four whole ice cubes. Many recipes call for packing the glass with crushed or shaved ice but rapid dilution is not the way to treat this drink. No ice works well when using quality whole milk and if you’re in the partying mood. A proper shaking will create an agreeable frothy top.
The garnish ~ a dusting: Freshly grated nutmeg, grated fresh, from whole nutmeg, freshly grated over the top of the finished milk punch. The mystical properties of freshly grated nutmeg are undervalued in our mentally dysgenic society. It is all at once furtively sensual, evocative of faraway dreamlands, and mildly narcotic. The milk punch is nothing without fresh nutmeg. If the only thing you have is powdered nutmeg in a tin, you may as well use floor sweepings and hang yourself from the nearest church buttress afterwards.
Historically, the Bourbon Milk Punch makes all kinds of sense. New Orleans, where the drink was born and still heartily survives, is the place where barges of Kentucky barrel-aged corn liquor would have arrived via the Mississippi during a high water season at odds with the Midwestern harvest and distilling season. Nutmeg is a spice common in the Caribbean. One of my personal additions, Allspice Dram, is also a Caribbean spice.
The maple syrup was in my fridge and happened to work. Hey, it’s a new era. The drinks bible of the 21st Century is being written every day.
2010.11.09 Todd Abrams at 11:19 pm
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10 Responses to Bourbon Milk Punch, to Your Taste
Nice work, dude. I expect to be drinking these at your house soon.
You most certainly will.
That’s the great thing about “mixology”, experimentation is encouraged!
Many drinks were first made with brandy or Cognac, including the venerable Sazerac, that are more often made with Bourbon or rye today.
Check out this Milk Punch recipes from the late 1800’s:
http://www.classicmixology.com/punches/milk_punch/1862
http://www.classicmixology.com/punches/english_milk_punch/1862
Those old-timey recipes are fun to look at. Not sure I’ll be putting isinglass in my drink anytime soon though.
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I had some great success making this for an alternative thanksgiving today.
I used 2 shots bourbon (bulleit). 3 shots of milk, 1 shot licor 43, and 1/2 a shot of simple syrup (made with dimera or other brown sugar). Garnish with fresh nutmeg or in my case blackstrap bitters.
I haven’t tried Licor 43 yet. Did it work well?
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Try a New Orlreans brandy milk punch.
I just came across this post. I know I’m a little bit late to the game. But, I think you’ll like my input on this subject.
Many of the original recipes for milk punch pre-date the New Orleans versions of the cocktail. In fact, Ben Franklin’s favorite drink was a version of a milk punch. The biggest difference between the New Orleans drink, which is in and of itself a variation on the original milk punch, is the addition of lemon juice to the milk.
In many traditional recipes, the milk is slightly heated and lemon juice or another acid is added to the milk. Of course, this curdles the milk. In the traditional recipes, the bartender would strain out the curdled milk leaving behind only the whey.
Try one of those versions out. You will be more than satisfied with the result. The clarified milk in the drink can be almost crystal clear, but imparts all of the flavor and a rich, velvety texture to the drink.