The dry shake and egg white drinks

A sour with egg white arrives wearing a white collar: a dense, fine foam that holds the bitters you draw across it and softens every sip underneath. The foam is made of egg protein unwound by agitation and wrapped around air. The dry shake is the way bartenders unwind it on purpose, and the reverse dry shake is the same idea with the order flipped.

What you need

• A two-piece tin shaker. Boston shakers with a glass half are riskier here, because a shake without ice builds no vacuum and the halves can part.
• Pasteurized egg white: cartons of liquid pasteurized whites are the easy option, and pasteurized shell eggs are sold labeled as pasteurized on the carton. One large white is about 1 oz / 30 ml; the carton equivalent is 2 to 3 tablespoons (30 to 45 ml).
• Or aquafaba, the liquid from a can of chickpeas, strained. Use 0.75 oz / 22 ml per drink.
• A Hawthorne strainer, a fine mesh strainer, and the spring from a second Hawthorne if you have one.
• Fresh citrus, syrup, spirit, and a chilled coupe or rocks glass.

Dry shake versus reverse dry shake

Standard dry shake: all ingredients into the tins without ice, shake, then add ice and shake again. Punch's reporting gives the result as smaller bubbles, a smoother and more stable head, a creamier mouthfeel. The Bols academy test found the opposite on bubble size, with the reverse giving the finer, firmer foam, so treat bubble size as something to test with your own tins. Audrey Saunders adds a reason, by way of Harold McGee: egg foams form faster when the liquid is not yet cold.

Reverse dry shake: shake with ice first, strain the drink back into the empty tin, discard the ice, and shake again with no ice. The head comes up taller and faster, with bigger bubbles, and it settles sooner. It is the method to choose when a tall, dramatic cap matters more than a long-lasting one. Two of the bartenders in Punch's piece point out that a long iceless shake at the end warms a drink you have just chilled, so keep that last shake short.

Chad Solomon worked out the modern dry shake around 2006 to spare his back from shaking heavy ice; a 1951 recipe in Ted Saucier's Bottoms Up shows the idea is older. We teach the standard order first.

Steps: Whiskey Sour, standard dry shake

1. Chill the glass.
2. Into the small tin: 2 oz / 60 ml bourbon, 0.75 oz / 22 ml lemon juice, 0.75 oz / 22 ml simple syrup, 1 oz / 30 ml pasteurized egg white.
3. Seal the tins with no ice. Press them together firmly and check the seal by hand.
4. Dry shake for 10 to 15 seconds, hard, holding both tins. Julie Reiner counts about ten strokes. The liquid will thicken and go pale.
5. Open, fill the large tin two-thirds with cubes, reseal, and shake hard for another 10 to 12 seconds to chill and dilute.
6. Double strain into the chilled glass, Hawthorne over fine mesh. Let it stand 20 seconds while the foam rises and tightens.
7. Dot 3 drops of aromatic bitters on the foam. Serve at once.

For the Pisco Sour the recipe is 2 oz / 60 ml pisco, 1 oz / 30 ml lime juice, 0.75 oz / 22 ml simple syrup and 1 oz / 30 ml egg white, same method, bitters on top.

Steps: the reverse

1. Everything into the tins with ice. Shake 10 to 12 seconds.
2. Strain through the Hawthorne back into the small tin, dump the ice, wipe the rim.
3. Reseal and shake 10 seconds without ice. Pour straight into the glass through the fine strainer.

Aquafaba

Replace the egg white with 0.75 oz / 22 ml strained chickpea liquid and follow either method. The foam is a little lighter and the drink a little sharper, because egg white rounds off alcohol in a way aquafaba does not. Note that chickpeas are a legume and should be named on the menu, and that the drink is vegan only if the rest of it is.

What can go wrong

• No foam. The egg was cold and the shake was gentle or short, or you used an egg substitute with gums and salt that will not whip. Shake harder and longer; buy plain whites.
• Foam collapses in a minute. Reverse method, or too much citrus for the egg. Switch to the standard order, or add the coiled spring from a Hawthorne to the tin for the dry shake; it whisks as it rattles.
• The tins opened mid-shake. No ice means no vacuum. Seal firmly, shake over the sink until you trust it.
• Eggy smell. The white is old, or the glass was not clean. Fresh pasteurized whites have almost no smell; a dash of bitters on top covers what is left.
• Specks of shell or chalaza. You used a shell egg and skipped the fine strainer. Strain the white alone through mesh before it goes in.

Food safety and responsible service

The FDA, the University of Connecticut and South Dakota State extensions all say the same thing: a clean, uncracked egg can still carry Salmonella, so any recipe served with raw egg should use pasteurized shell eggs or pasteurized egg products. Children, pregnant women, older adults and anyone with a weakened immune system are at higher risk and should be told when a drink contains raw egg. Keep eggs and cartons at or below 40 F (4 C), discard anything left out more than two hours, and never pre-batch egg white into a bottle for service. Alcohol does not make a raw egg safe. Egg white drinks are rich; please enjoy responsibly.

Sources

• Punch, "Is there a better way to make an egg white cocktail?" and "The silent shake heard round the world".
• Bols Bartending Academy, "Foam-tionary: how to get the best cocktail foam".
• Cocktail Society, "Aquafaba vs egg white in cocktails".
• US Food and Drug Administration, "What you need to know about egg safety".
• South Dakota State University Extension, "Egg safety with holiday foods".
• University of Connecticut Extension, "Your essential guide to egg safety".