A group of friends have a mostly-biweekly themed potluck, and this weeks theme was essentially “food from the ’50s”—we were focusing largely on the Jello aspect of it, but I thought it might be good to pursue something in the cocktail vein while I was at it, and deconstruct a Whiskey Sour into a congealed salad.
For those who haven’t had one, a Whiskey Sour is at its heart Whiskey, Lemon Juice, and sugar. Traditionally served with a cherry and/or an orange wedge as a garnish, so I figured that those ingredients would suit the Jello-shot application well, and my guesses as to quantities turned out pretty close to accurate, too. So here it is:
- 2 cups lemon juice (it ended up being about ten lemons, juiced, although I used nine lemons and one orange)
- 1 1/3 cup whiskey (I wouldn’t use Scotch, and I wouldn’t use anything fancy in the bourbon department, as it will only be covered up)
- 2/3 cup water
- 1/2 cup sugar (I like it sour—you might want to up the sugar content if you like it sweeter)
- 4 envelopes unflavored gelatin
- 1 (16 oz) can tart cherries in water
- 2 (8 oz) cans mandarin oranges
- Zest of two lemons
- Zest of one orange
Mix the whiskey, water, sugar, and zest in a bowl. In another bowl or saucepan, heat the lemon juice in the microwave or stovetop until boiling. Mix in the gelatin, stir until dissolved (about 5 minutes). Stir the warm lemon juice-gelatin mixture into the room temperature whiskey-water-zest mixture. Allow to cool to room temperature (I stirred mine over an ice bath to speed things along, but I was in a hurry). Mix in cherries and mandarin oranges, pour into a ring mold, or a cake pan, or a casserole dish, or whatever you want (the oranges will sink, and the cherries will float). Place into the refrigerator and allow to chill overnight.
If you used a ring pan or something that you’re gonna invert to serve this, it’ll come out of the fridge looking like this:
And when you invert it on the plate, it’ll end up looking like this:
Tastes like a whiskey sour, eats like a dessert, probably won’t get you drunk (there’s about a half a shot of whiskey in what I’d consider to be a “serving”), but you can rest assured that nobody else is bringing one to the party!
(Note: if you allow the mixture to chill and half-set before adding the fruit, you can mix it in to be more homogeneous, and not so much oranges-on-the-top -cherries-on-the-bottom. I didn’t have time, since I did assembled the whole thing from invention to refrigerator in the only fifteen minutes I had free yesterday.)
