This Pisco Sour recipe is a Chilean recipe for a classic sour cocktail.
Pisco Sour
PREPARATION TIME: 2 MINS MIX TIME: 30 SECS SERVES: 1
Ingredients
60mL Harris Organic Pisco
30mL fresh organic lime juice
15mL organic sugar syrup
Organic egg white
Dash of bitters
Ice
Method
Combine lime juice, sugar syrup, egg and Pisco in a shaker, and shake
Add ice and shake
Strain into glass
Add 4 drops of bitters
About the Pisco Sour cocktail
The Pisco Sour has been a source of contention between Chile and Peru for years now. Both countries have claimed in the past that it was them that invented it, but it’s widely accepted that the Pisco Sour is Peru’s national drink. For a long time, its creation was attributed to Victor Morris, an American railway worker in Peru. But…
If you had asked me about the history of the Pisco Sour I would tell you that the Pisco Sour was invented by Victor Morris’s wine bar in Lima during the 1920’s.
And although Chile also claims to have invented the Pisco Sour, documents such as printed advertisements or his bar’s register show that Pisco Sours were being served at the Morris Bar before anywhere else.
But a recent discovery of a Peruvian cookbook from 1903 made me question the origin of the Pisco Sour. This cookbook, Nuevo Manual de Cocina a la Criolla (Lima 1903), suggests that the origin of the Pisco Sour may be a traditional creole cocktail made in Lima over 100 years ago.
It all started with a tweet by Franco Cabachi from Pitahaya Bar in Lima, in which he posted a picture of a Peruvian cookbook from 1903 which had recipes for two of the cocktails in the book. The one that caught my eye was simply titled “Cocktail” — this is the approximate translation:
An egg white, a glass of Pisco, a teaspoon of fine sugar, and a few drops of lime as desired, this will open your appetite. Up to three glasses can be made with one egg white and a heaping teaspoon of fine sugar, adding the rest of the ingredients as needed for each glass. All this is beaten in a cocktail shaker until you’ve made a small punch.
Doesn’t that sound like the Pisco Sour? Absolutely, it has all the ingredients with the exception of the Angostura bitters and perhaps ice. Also, it uses fine sugar instead of simple syrup. And, in the style of the book, it has no specific measurements, rather it’s made to taste. Despite the obvious similarities, it’s interesting that this cocktail is not yet called the Pisco Sour.
Duncan’s vegan tip for Pisco Sour
To make your Pisco Sour vegan friendly, you can substitute the egg white with the gelatinous liquid from your can of chickpeas ( aqua-faba). Just take out the egg white and add two tablespoons of aqua-faba.
And, if you are keeping things traditional, we highly recommend making sure that your organic eggs are as fresh as possible for the best foam texture. Pisco is very versatile when pairing with different flavours, so for those wanting a more bitter result, you can try changing your lime to grapefruit. For a slightly sweeter result, give blood orange juice a go instead.
Who owns the name Pisco?
PISCO IS THE CULTURAL HERITAGE of PERU.
Even though Chile has a much greater production of its Aguardiente ( WRONGLY CALLED Pisco). Peru has defended its origin and after fierce and well-documented litigation on International Courts, it won the rights to use an Appellation of Origin for Pisco. Therefore, Peru claims the exclusive right.
Pisco was recognized as a Peruvian Geographical Indication by the European Union in 2013. However, the United States allows products of Peru and Chile to be identified as ” Pisco “. We don’t know what the Australian government allows. Do you?
Peru states the word ” Pisco ” has a close relationship with the Geographical area where it is produced. Like Champagne in France, and thus should be used only by the distillate produced in Peru.
The Salvador and the European Union recognize ” the Exclusive Peruvian Origin of Pisco ” where its distinctive grapes grow and thrive like no other region.
PISCO – CULTURAL HERITAGE of PERU
So, to recognise this fact we use the Peruvian name Pisco or the French name Eau de Vie on the label.
Building a pizza oven from used solid bricks can be a very rewarding project.
This homemade red brick pizza oven building project was started in May 2010.
A lot of work went into exploring different traditional brick pizza oven websites like https://www.traditionaloven.com/ and https://www.fornobravo.com/
Here you will find the step by step pictures of my homemade pizza oven so you can build a workable oven that cooks real pizzas and marvellous bread.
The pizza oven is a traditional dome type whereas the tunnel type of pizza oven is easier to build. If you have any questions feel free to make comments. The oven is designed to be moved by forklift, but not towed on a trailer.
Brick Pizza Oven Plans
DIY pizza oven
When you follow along this thread you will find lots of information on building your own DIY pizza oven. A solid base is a good start and sorting your own solid pizza oven bricks to make a lovely brick pizza oven helps with your brick pizza oven plans. Mine has been going ten years now, so we are confident that this method will work for you.
Step 1.
The base
First of all, determine what type of base you require. This one is made from delta core concrete, light and strong and transportable. “Deltacore” are in Perth, Western Australia. I got my base home with my 6×4 trailer. This means I can pick the oven up with my forklift and place it anywhere I want. Most people will choose to build theirs in place using concrete or bricks.
Oven base made by Deltacore a local concrete company.
The base is 1500 x 1200 mm and 150mm deep. You will need to add two tension bars across the base to give tension in that direction.
Red Solid Bricks
The bricks used on this build are old red solids found lying around the organic farm. Some are very soft and others very hard to cut with the fourteen-inch friction saw. We found soaking the pizza oven bricks in a bucket of water reduced the amount of dust when cutting them and they were easier to cut too.
Step 2.
Dimensions
Determine the diameter of the brick pizza oven. This brick pizza oven is one metre inside diameter.
Brick Pizza oven base
Here I have marked it out and placed the outside base layer of red solids in place. These are glued to the concrete with a mixture of clay, lime and cement. Remember you are building a brick pizza oven, not a mortar pizza oven. To do this keep the gaps between your bricks less than 3mm.
Concrete Pizza oven base
The Pizza oven baseboard
Pizza oven base saw
To set the base out I drew the one-metre diameter on a 6mm sheet of cement sheet with the entrance of the brick pizza oven door too. Under the sheet went a 25mm layer of high-temperature ceramic insulation. To cut and shape the bricks I used 14-inch friction saw, with a masonry disk. Old bricks are easy to cut and if soaked in a bucket of water have a reduced amount of dust.
Bricks and Mortar
In building a pizza brick oven, mortar should be used in only up to 6mm thick applications. Mortar should be used to assist in forming the brick walls and shouldn’t be used in plugging large holes as it will burn out.
This is the brick mortar ratio I used: 10 : 6 : 2 : 3 – Sand, Fire Clay, Portland grey cement, and lime.
Pizza oven insulation
Insulating a brick pizza oven
Insulating a pizza oven is most important. Mineral wool is the best as it will withstand 2000C, much more than required. Rockwool is the next best or perlite, depending on whether it is under or on top of the bricks. If the insulation is under the brick floor it needs to be supported to not squash the pizza oven insulation.
How to support the insulation
There is a product on the market, used in foundries called a chaplet. Available in various sizes they will hold solid surfaces apart. Use them to stop the insulation from being squashed.
Brick Pizza oven base insulation
oven base mineral wool insulation
The oven base insulation is under the cement sheet.
More oven base floor
oven base floor with mineral wool just showing.
The oven base floor insulation
oven base floor bricks
The oven base floor bricks
Here is the first layer in place, ready for the next layer.
Step 3.
Finish the Pizza oven floor.
The oven base floor bricks
pizza oven base floor bricks
The pizza oven first outside layer of bricks and the floor finished with red floor tiles.
Here I have used clay floor tiles, in hindsight, not a good choice as they crack under heat stress. A later version has ceramic furnace tiles in place of these. NB that under the floor tiles is a layer of 50 mm brick pavers sitting on top of the cement sheet. Next build I will place 50 mm of insulation under the brick pavers, using chaplets to hold the baseboard up from squashing the insulation.
Who is the photographer
The pizza oven builder.
Step 4.
Making the oven door and formwork.
Red Tile floor
The Tiled floor
You will require two pieces of steel, one for the oven door and the other for the flue entrance. I bent these the hard way with a hammer. In the centre of the photo is the form for building the brick dome. The door is 550mm wide and 260mm high.
Shep watching on.
Pizza oven Tile floor – Planning
The Pizza oven former is a piece of sheet metal angle welded to a steel rod. At the centre is a washer welded to the rod.
Can you see the pin in the centre of the Pizza oven floor, next to the cup? It’s a bolt through a piece of plywood and stuck to the floor with masking tape.
See the pin in the centre of the floor
Here the second layer is stuck to the first layer. Looks like the last brick need to be cut to finish this Pizza oven layer.
The former
The second layer in place
The Pizza oven third layer in place
The third layer in place.
The fourth layer nearly finished.
Note the small pieces of brick used as wedges.
The fourth layer nearly finished.
Step 5.
The Pizza oven chimney
Early in the build.
A mock-up of the Pizza oven chimney early in the build.
A tricky bit of brickwork over the door
Starting another layer
A mock-up early in the build.
Good Pizza oven brickwork
Halfway there
The Pizza oven builder – Duncan
Duncan – the Pizza oven builder
The builder bricklayer – Duncan
Another layer finished.
Note the inner top Pizza oven bricks are getting towards being vertical, meaning the mud between the bricks has to dry before moving the former.
Step 5
Finishing the dome
The final part of the brick building. In this step, I have placed a disk of sheet metal inside through the door up under the dome. It is held up with red bricks and wood. On top of the sheet is some sand formed into a dome and the remaining Pizza oven bricks placed onto the sand.
Build nearly finished
Nearly finished, just need to add the flue.
The build nearly finished- looks good where it counts
Once all the Pizza oven bricks are in place the sheet is removed and it all stays together.
The Pizza oven inside finished.
See the good brickwork
Good brickwork
The finished dome before the mortar seals it
Another cup of tea on the hearth
The first Pizza oven chimney in place. just needs mortar.
Another view
Finished Pizza oven
Picked up with the forklift
Step 6
Firing and drying
See the first small fire
Chimney redesigned #2
Chimney No. 2.
The first Pizza oven chimney was OK but smoked on startup. After making the larger chimney #2, which was much better, I found that they all smoke on startup. It is the volume of smoke produced that the Pizza oven chimney can’t cope with even if you have a big fire. The answer is to start small.
Step 7
Finishing outside of pizza oven
Insulating the oven.
Here I have used old fibreglass batts, however, “Rockwool” is recommended to finish the outside of the pizza oven.
Painful. The lesson with this is to place aluminium foil or some other non-combustible on top of the insulation under the wire mesh. Also, you may need to place foundry chaplets in the insulation too so the mortar will not squash the insulation. Then, if the insulation is compressed the chaplets will hold the mortar away from the bricks. In this case, the mortar overhangs the concrete base, which does not help. There is a better way.
Mortar layer all finished.
Duncan, the proud owner
The finished article. Later, we cut off the daggy bits covering the base and added some sheet metal angle to support the mortar layer.
DIY pizza oven plans free
If you require drawings and all you want is free plans, then check out Forno Bravo.
DIY pizza oven plans free is a common search term on the internet. At https://www.fornobravo.com/pompeii-oven/pompeii-oven-plans/ you will find many interesting articles on building the perfect brick oven.
One hot pizza oven
Then allow some time for the mortar and bricks to dry inside and out and then it’s pizza time.
Pizza oven running with WWOOF
Making pizzas
Just out of the oven
And, what more do you want with hot wood fired pizza is a glass of organic red wine.
