Quarantine cocktail: White Lady
Today’s beverage for the stay-at-home bartender/drinker is the White Lady.
It’s a member of the sour cocktail family, composed of base liquor (for this drink, it’s gin), tart citrus (lemon juice), and sweetener (Cointreau, in lieu of the more common simple syrup). The addition of egg white provides a velvety richness and gives the drink its ghostly pallor, which probably explains the name. But the cocktail could just as easily be called A Tale of Two Harrys: the drink was created in the 1920s by Harry MacElhone at the legendary Harry’s New York Bar in Paris, and recorded for posterity by Harry Craddock in his influential 1930 Savoy Cocktail Book.
Like many sour cocktails, you’ll find different versions of the drink that vary the proportions of the main ingredients, and some that omit the egg white altogether. The recipe usually specifies Cointreau, but any orange-flavored liqueur (e.g., Grand Marnier, curaçao) would work. My favorite rendition, described below, yields a drink that is refreshingly dry and tart - and deceptively strong. So, tread carefully - she may sound elegant and refined, but this White Lady packs quite a punch!
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White Lady
2 oz. gin, London dry style (like Beefeater)
½ oz. Cointreau
½ oz. lemon juice, freshly squeezed
egg white from one small/medium egg (alternative: ½ oz liquid egg whites)
cocktail shaker, Hawthorne strainer, ice, chilled coupe glass
Steps
combine all ingredients in the cocktail shaker
shake vigorously without ice until foamy (this is called a dry shake)
half-fill with ice and shake until well chilled
strain into chilled coupe - no garnish
