How To Make Morton's Signature Cocktail In Your Own Home

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Morton's The Steakhouse is a chain that serves up a full menu of classic steakhouse dishes, and naturally, some of them better than others. If you're a fan of Manhattans, however, you'll definitely want to experience Morton's take on this cocktail, which is known as the State Street Manhattan.What makes this drink really stand out is the fact that it's garnished with — what else? — a steak strip. Even if you're not up for a trip to a high-end steakhouse, you can still experience this cocktail at home thanks to developer Julianne De Witt's copycat recipe.

As De Witt says of her take on Morton's signature cocktail, "This is a fun, bold, bittersweet cocktail that would be perfect for serving at a dinner party or small get together." She goes on to say, "This robust cocktail pairs perfectly with a charcuterie board, cheese platter, roast duck, or grilled steak. I would even pair this with sweets such as dark chocolate terrine or truffles." The recipe can easily be scaled up for larger groups, and likewise scaled down if you'll be drinking solo. In the latter case, though, you may want to plan it to accompany a steak dinner. That way, you can just slice off a piece of your entree instead of cooking a steak solely for the purpose of garnishing.

The drink itself is made from red vermouth, Angostura bitters, and bourbon infused with orange peel and cocktail or maraschino cherries. For the garnish, you'll also be cooking up steak, so you'll need a New York strip steak and some salt.

Use a vegetable or Y-peeler to peel wide strips off of one of the oranges.

Add the orange peels to a mason jar.

Lightly crush the cherries using the back of a spoon.

Add the cherries to the jar.

Pour 8 ounces of bourbon over the fruit.

Add 4 ounces of red vermouth to the jar.

Cover the jar with a lid and leave to infuse at room temperature for 12 to 24 hours.

When the infusing time is up, strain the cherries and peels from the bourbon mixture using a fine meshed sieve. You can discard the orange peels and cherries or use them as desired.

Meanwhile, season the steak with salt to taste.

Spritz a frying pan with cooking spray and place over medium-high heat.

Grill the steak on one side for 1 ½ to 2 minutes, until browned.

Flip the steak and cook for another 2 minutes, or until medium rare. Rest the steak.

Peel 4 pieces off of the remaining orange to use as garnish.

Slice 4 small pieces of steak.

Assemble the garnish by threading an orange peel, piece of steak, and cherry onto a cocktail skewer. Repeat with all 4 skewers.

Fill 4 rocks glasses with ice.

Pour 3 ounces of the infused bourbon mix per glass over the ice.

Add 2 dashes of bitters to each cocktail.

Top off each cocktail with the steak skewer and serve.

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The Manhattan cocktail dates back to the 1860s or 1870s, at which time it was also known as the Jockey Club or Turf Club cocktail. While we aren't certain of the exact date, nor do we know for sure who created it, it does seem to have originated in the borough whose name it now bears. Some consider the Manhattan to be the first modern cocktail because it took the standard Old Fashioned made from whiskey and bitters and added vermouth.

Early drink recipes didn't specify a type of whiskey and often used equal parts of vermouth. (In one case, the amount was even double.) Most Manhattan recipes nowadays use a two-to-one ratio, with the larger amount typically being rye whiskey. Morton's signature State Street Manhattan is made with bourbon instead of rye (Woodford Reserve, to be specific), but the real difference between it and a standard Manhattan — besides that steak strip garnish — is that fruit doesn't merely serve a decorative function, but is also used to infuse the bourbon. Morton's is said to employ a coffee maker for this purpose, while this recipe calls for a mason jar, but any clean, lidded vessel will work.

Before we get into the difference between bourbon and whiskey, we need to talk about whiskey in general. The word "whiskey" is an umbrella term that covers a variety of brown spirits distilled from grain, including Scotch, Irish, Japanese, and Canadian whiskeys, as well as both rye and bourbon. A Manhattan should be made with either rye or bourbon (both of which have a similar flavor profile), but if you make the drink with Scotch, it's called a Rob Roy. You can also make a Manhattan-type cocktail with Irish, Japanese, or Canadian whiskey, although none of these drinks seems to have a widely accepted nickname.

If you choose to use rye instead of bourbon in your Manhattan, this won't alter the taste too much. There are, however, a few differences between these two whiskies. The main one is that rye is made from at least 51% rye grains, while bourbon is at least 51% corn. A rye-heavy mix tends to be fruitier and spicier, while more corn in the mash makes the drink sweeter and heavier. Bourbon must also be aged in newly-charred oak barrels, but then again, so must American-made rye whiskies.

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