- 45mL rye whisky
- 30mL dry white vermouth
- 30mL Campari
Stir over ice until chilled. Pour into a coupe or similar glass. Garnish with a lemon peel.
We live in an era where everyone even vaguely on the cocktail scene knows the Negroni, and most also know the Boulevardier. These are two classic examples of the “equal parts cocktail.” The good ones, of course, are not exactly equal parts. But it does make it easier to remember.
A lesser known variation is the Old Pal. Made with rye instead of gin or bourbon, and dry vermouth instead of sweet. This classic is a nice, drier and lighter variation on that same “equal parts” theme.
I keep putting “equal parts” in quotes for a reason, and you might notice that my recipe at the top is definitely not equal parts. In my experience, an “equal parts” cocktail has the advantage of being easy to remember, and the disadvantage of not being quite the right balance of ingredients. In this case, I like my Old Pal to have a bit more rye than vermouth or Campari. Some times, I will drop the amount of Campari a bit further — maybe 20 to 25mL — for something just a touch more dry. But the point is, most of the so-called “equal parts” cocktails benefit by not being equal measures of ingredients after all. That balance in a drink can be a fair bit more complicated.
You don’t see the Old Pal on a lot of cocktail menus these days. Thanks to some serious marketing effort by The Campari Group, the Negroni is back from its historical roots strong, showing up on most bars’ menus in some form or another. And everybody has their spin on it. Don’t get me wrong, I love a good Negroni; I’m not trying to bash it. Rye is my jam, though, and that’s one of many reasons that I love the Old Pal, and lament that it doesn’t get quite the same love that the Negroni does.
None of these drinks is all that new, of course. Both the Negroni and the Old Pal seem to date back to roughly the same era. A cocktail’s history is often weird, vague, and somewhat dubious. But both the Negroni and the Old Pal can be traced to the early 20th century. Supposedly, the Negroni was first mixed at Caffè Casoni in Florence in 1919. While the Old Pal shows up in Harry’s ABC of Mixing Cocktails published in 1924 (authored by The Harry MacElhone of the famous Harry’s New York Bar in Paris, which is home to so many of the cocktail classics we all know and love).
History notwithstanding, the Old Pal is just that: a solid go-to of a cocktail and a drink to be relied upon. Great with dinner. Great before dinner. Great after dinner. Great for dinner or even breakfast, if that’s your style. And it’s a solid recipe to have in your back pocket for when your not-so-old friends are looking for something slightly different from their usual favorites.
So, stir one up! Enjoy the kick of that rye whisky, mellowed by the fun complexity of a nice vermouth, and punched up a bit more with the bitter and sweet flavors in the Campari. If you’re at all like me, you’ll not be disappointed, my old pal.