377. White Rat Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1.5 oz Copper & Kings Absinthe Blanche
  0.5 oz Hiram Walker Anisette

 Fill mixing-glass with cracked ice, shake well (about 30 seconds), strain into cocktail glass, serve. — This glowing anise Duo first appears in JM 1908 with (strangely mangled) Ojen or white absinthe and Anise topped with soda, making in effect a non-bittered Ojen cocktail:

Perhaps following Straub 1913/1914, who is known for simplifying, leaving out information, or otherwise altering Grohusko’s recipes (cf. Brooklyn Cocktail, infamously), JM1916 drops the carbonic or soda as well as the specification of white absinthe. The effect of these two ingredients by themselves resembles that of a sweeter Ojen Spanish absinthe. The simplified recipe finds its way into later books such as Judge Jr.’s Noble Experiments (1930).

243. Narragansett Cocktail

This recipe with a toponymic name, as if the Rhode Island yacht-clubbers’ take on a Manhattan, appears in a 2:1 ratio in Straub 1913 (where absinthe is used instead of anisette), which translates, as usual, to a slightly less tipsy 3:2 ratio when borrowed by JM in 1916. The vermouth, anisette, and olive recall the Montana Club listed a few entries above on the same page, but the effect with sweet vermouth and rye is decidedly different. Both authors likely got the recipe from the old Waldorf manual, which finds expression in the Old Waldorf Bar Days (1931). There we see first the important note “No Bitters.” This was to prevent the bartender from automatically adding the typical bitters to a drink which had every sign of being a cocktail, which everyone knew meant liquor, sweetener, bitters, and dilution. This delves back into the pre-cocktail Sling. Here the anisette (is this an indication that JM is more faithful to the original?) serves the purpose of bitters, though. Incidentally, the Old Waldorf also specifies straining the drink onto the olive, not dropping the latter in after. I include the Straub version with absinthe for comparison:

240. Montana Club Cocktail

This dry, brandy-based cocktail first appears in JM 1908 and continues pretty much without change to the end. In 1908, he calls for a large bar glass half full of ice. This peculiar instruction may indicate a borrowing. Also specified there is “California Brandy.” That is, rather than French brandy (cognac). A similar cocktail in Straub called simply the “Montana Cocktail” adds 2 dashes of Angostura bitters and 2 dashes of port, specifies shaking, and leaves out the olive; still, the brandy + dry vermouth + anisette combination is enough to relate it, whereas the recipe of the same name in the 1927 Barflies & Cocktails book shares only the french vermouth and anisette, with Sloe Gin as the base, to which orange bitters are added, and a squeeze of lemon peel as a bonus. If one were charitable, one might be tempted to see the sloe gin as a good guess for the brandy + port. Another recipe found in the Old Waldorf Bar Book, a later iteration of the earlier source of many New York recipe collections, serves as an elucidator: Simply equal portions of Brandy, French Vermouth, and Port Wine, stirred. It is there called “a compliment to the field of operations of many early patrons of the Bar.” Obviously the recipes are related, though an explanation for the disparity between anisette and port is still wanting.

230. McCutcheon Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1 oz Beefeater London Dry Gin
  0.5 oz Dolin Dry Vermouth
  0.5 oz Casa Mariol Vermut Negra
  1 dash Regan’s Orange Bitters
  1 dash Angostura Bitters
  1 dash Hiram Walker Anisette

Fill mixing-glass with ice, stir ingredients except Anisette, strain into cocktail glass, finish with Anisette using spoon or mister. — This enhanced perfect Martini first appears in Straub 1913 and is then included in JM1916.

213. London Cocktail

My interpretation:
  2 oz Captive Spirits Big Gin
  2 dashes Regan’s Orange Bitters
  2 dashes gum syrup
  2 dashes Hiram Walker Anisette

Shake well (30 seconds), strain into cocktail glass, serve. — This recipe follows almost exactly the 1930 Savoy Cocktail Book, except for the Anisette in place of original Absinthe. Since Jack retains absinthe in other recipes, this is a curious change, though we know from experience that he generally makes his drinks a little weaker, and this may be for that purpose.

205. Lawhill Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1 oz Rittenhouse Rye
  1 oz Noilly Prat Dry Vermouth
  1 dash Hiram Walker Anisette
  1 dash Luxardo Maraschino
  1 dash Angostura bitters

Shake well (30 seconds), strain into cocktail glass. — This riff on a dry Manhattan appears to be a variation of that in the Savoy Cocktail Book (1930), substituting generic rye for Canadian Club and anisette for absinthe. Jack has also adjusted the proportion of base and vermouth from 2:1 to 1:1. The combined result is slightly weaker and less expensive, but none the less interesting.
 

183. Infuriator Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1.5 oz Western Grace brandy
  0.5 oz Hiram Walker Anisette

Shake 35 seconds with ice, strain into cocktail glass, serve. — This is a typical Straubian dessert Duo, originally a sweeter 2:1 ratio, borrowed from Straub for JM 1916.
 

84. Chrysanthemum Cocktail

My interpretation:
   2.5 oz Dolin Dry
   0.5 oz Benedictine
   3 dashes Hiram Walker Anisette

Shake well (20 seconds) with ice, strain into cocktail glass, express orange peel and garnish. — This classic vermouth-forward recipe, ideal for dessert, was a new addition to JM 1933.
 

69. Café de Paris Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1 Vital Farms egg-white
  3 dashes Hiram Walker Anisette
  1 barspoon heavy cream
  2 oz Bombay Sapphire

Shake well (20 seconds) with fine ice, strain into glass with approx. 3 oz capacity. — This classic also comes to the JM tradition from Straub in which it is spelled Cafe de Paree. Here, of course, the Cafe refers not to coffee per se, nor of course to the ’30s London night club, as some have suggested, but to the venerable 19th-century coffee-house in central Paris—either to indicate its supposed origin, or else to make a nostalgic association without basis: “Fit for the fashionable madames at the gay old café de Paree!”

45. Blanche Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1.25 oz Cointreau
  1.25 oz Pierre Ferrand Dry Curaçao
  0.5 oz Romana Sambuca

Shake well (20 seconds), strain into glass. — A dessert duo or trio which should be called simply a Blanche, this is a fine drink, if a little sweet. It is also a post-Prohibition newcomer to the Jack’s Manual, not appearing in earlier editions. Other sources suggest that the drink may originally have called for absinthe blanche, or white absinthe, rather than anisette. Also, it may have originally called for clear curaçao and hence had a white rather than pale orange appearance.