340. Sunshine Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1.5 oz Beefeater London Dry Gin
  0.5 oz Noilly Prat Extra Dry Vermouth
  1 tsp lime juice
  1/2 tsp Jack Rudy Grenadine
  1 egg white

Shake vigorously with a little ice about 45 seconds, strain into claret glass or 5-6 oz stemmed glass, serve. — This gin-and-lime brunch recipe, resembling a frothed up, fancy Gin Daisy/Sour, first appears in Straub 1913 with some additional details (Old Tom gin, 2-person drink), whence it finds its way into JM1916. An unrelated drink by this name in Barflies & Cocktails (1927) is essentially a brandy-rum sour. The 1931 Old Waldorf Bar Days has a somewhat related Sunshine amounting to a lemon-lime silver fizz in a lemonade glass, omitting sweetener. Modern drinks bearing this name are unrelated, or perhaps derived from McElhone’s recipe.
  

336. Stanton Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1 oz Beefeater Gin
  1 oz Noilly Prat Dry
  2 dashes D.O.M. Benedictine

Fill mixing-glass with ice, stir, strain into cocktail glass, serve. — This Dry Martini riff with Benedictine tinge first appears in JM1908, an apparent Grohusko original. Earlier instances of hte recipe specify dry gin, so the absence of a modifier here is not a hint at something less-than-dry, but probably a typo. Stanton is the name of a street in the Lower East Side of Manhattan, not far from Baracca’s Eating-House / Jack’s bar.
 

335. Sphinx Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1.25 oz Beefeater Dry Gin
  0.33 oz Dolin Dry
  0.33 oz Vermut Lustau

Fill mixing-glass with ice, stir, strain into cocktail glass, garnish with lemon peel or slice. — This perfect martini riff with thin lemon garnish first appears in Straub 1913 and is picked up in JM1916.

334. Spaulding Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1.25 oz Beefeater Gin
  0.75 Dubonnet Rouge
  1 tsp The Famous Grouse blended Scotch

Fill shaker with fine ice, shake well (30 seconds), strain into cocktail glass, serve. — This sweet martini-riff with a tinge of smoky scotch first appears in Straub 1913 and is borrowed in JM1916.
 

333. South Africa Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1 oz Lustau Amontillado
   1 oz Beefeater Gin
  3 drops lime juice (1 barspoon)
  1 dash Angostura bitters

Shake, strain into cocktail glass, serve. — This balanced Martini-riff with lime juice as well as sherry in place of vermouth, is first found in JM 1916, borrowed from Straub 1913.

330. Society Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1.25 oz Beefeater Gin
  0.75 oz Dolin Dry
  1 dash Jack Rudy Grenadine

Fill mixing-glass with broken ice, shake, strain into cocktail glass, serve. — This martini with a dash of grenadine first appears in Straub 1913 and is borrowed for JM 1916.
 

328. Smallwood Cocktail

My interpretation:
  0.5 oz Beefeater Gin
  0.5 oz Noilly Prat Dry Vermouth
  0.5 oz Vermut Lustau
  0.5 oz Cherry Heering 

Fill mixing-glass with cracked ice, shake, strain into cocktail glass, serve. — The origins of this perfect martini + cherry cordial are obscure. It appears only in JM1933 and nowhere in the earlier usual suspects. Whether named for the revolutionary general and governor of Maryland, or the vacationers’ hamlet in Bethel, New York, is unknown.
 

324. Silver Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1 oz Beefeater Gin
  1 oz Noilly Prat Dry Vermouth
  2 dashes Regan’s orange bitters
  2 dashes Luxardo maraschino
  1 dash gum syrup
  1 dash Angostura bitters

Stir well (30 seconds) in mixing-glass half full of ice, strain into cocktail glass, squeeze lemon peel, garnish, serve. — This recipe is first found in JM1908 and continues without change to JM1933. Straub 1913 shows a simpler formula with sweet vermouth and no gum syrup. McElhone’s recipe in Barflies & Cocktails (1927), ascribing the authorship to Pat O’Brien of the Knickerbocker, uses dry vermouth, but instead of gum syrup calls for egg white and orgeat—for which Jack’s use of gum syrup would be a reasonable, if lackluster, substitute. The Savoy Cocktail Book simplifies on Jack’s recipe by dropping the Angostura and gum syrup, bringing it closer to an augmented dry Martini or Tuxedo. This idea is also reflected in the Old Waldorf Bar Days book, which calls for a Martini with maraschino, frappé.
   

318. Schulke Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1 oz Beefeater London Dry Gin
  0.5 oz home-infused orange gin (Gin Lane 1751 Old Tom + orange peels)
  0.5 oz Plymouth Sloe Gin
  1 T lime juice

Fill mixing-glass with broken ice, stir, strain, serve. — This interesting Trio balanced with a little lime juice, comes off like a Savoy punch-style drink, though it makes its appearance much earlier in JM1910. The orange gin of the day was Booth’s. Today a number of options are starting to appear again, but home-infused orange gin may still be the best resort in many parts of the States.

314. Salome Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1 oz Beefeater London Dry Gin
  0.5 oz Noilly Prat Rouge
  0.5 oz Noilly Prat Dry
  2 dashes Fee Brothers Orange Bitters
  3 celery leaves

Shake vigorously with fine ice until shaker is covered with ice (about 30-40 seconds), strain into cocktail glass, garnish with celery leaf, serve. — This recipe, a Perfect Martini with an exotic, savory celery tinge, comes to JM1916 from Straub. In the Old Waldorf Bar Days (1931) which represents the root of the same tradition, a drink by the same name follows the St. Peter, but is a completely different drink consisting of Sweet Vermouth, Dubonnet, and absinthe; The Savoy (1930) had a probably related mixture of Sweet Vermouth, Dry Gin, and Dubonnet. The root of any drink in those days bearing this name is surely the book by Oscar Wilde, and perhaps more so, the infamous opera by Richard Strauss, written in 1905 with a US premiere in 1907.

256. Orange Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1.5 oz Beefeater London Dry Gin
  0.5 oz Vermut Lustau
  1 dash Chartreuse
  0.25 oz (1 T) fresh orange juice

Fill mixing-glass with broken ice, shake, strain into cocktail glass, serve. — This recipe first appears in JM 1910 (2nd ed.) with one small but distinct difference:

This suggests that the Orange Cocktail had a unique vessel, a hollowed orange-peel, perhaps half an orange peel set intact into a coupe. This novelty was eventually dropped, as demonstrated by JM 1916. Here I have chosen a rounded wine glass in homage of the name and original presentation.

252. Olivette Cocktail

My interpretation:
   1 oz Beefeater London Dry Gin
   1 oz Noilly Prat Dry Vermouth
  3 dashes Fee Brothers Orange Bitters
  3 dashes St. George Absinthe Verte
  1 dash Angostura Bitters
  1 dash gum syrup

In mixing-glass half-full of ice stir well (20-30 seconds), strain into chilled cocktail glass, express lemon peel over glass and garnish with fresh lemon peel. — The original recipe for this Martini riff from JM 1908 omits vermouth, has 2 dashes of syrup instead of 1, and includes an olive alongside the lemon peel, the latter point being perhaps rather on the nose for a drink by this name. 

These differences all reflect a reorientation of the original recipe, an enhanced Plymouth Gin Cocktail + olive, in conformity with the Martini style recipe in Straub 1913/1914, which cuts the gin with vermouth, dials down the syrup, and drops the olive. In 1927’s Barflies and Cocktails, however, we find the older recipe without vermouth, with 2 dashes syrup, and with the olive. This earlier recipe is again found in the 1930 Savoy Cocktail Book. A less similar Olivet in the Old Waldorf Bar Days (1931) has gin paired with sweet vermouth, orange bitters, and an olive, a Martinez-riff.
 

248. Nutting Cocktail

My Interpretation:
  1.25 oz Beefeater London Dry Gin
  0.75 oz Dolin Dry Vermouth
  1 dash Angostura bitters
  1 dash Fee Brothers orange bitters

Shake with ice, strain into cocktail glass, serve. — This Martini riff calling lavishly for two bitters, is first found with this name in Straub 1913, borrowed in 1916, when the 2:1 ratio became 3:2. In 1933, “dry gin” was changed to “gin” either accidentally or without effect (a vague term in 1916 and 1933).

245. Newman Cocktail

This Dry Martini riff with a bitter-orange amaro accent is borrowed from Straub to make its JM debut in 1916, but both men may have known it from the old Waldorf Bar, which, besides presenting it as a Perfect Martini riff which is frappéed rather than simply shaken, also provides an interesting detail:

Here is the JM1933 take with Amaro CioCiaro sitting in for Amer Picon. Bigallet China-China Amer, now widely available, would do just as well if not better, though not much better for the price.
 

239. Milo Cocktail

This recipe comes from Straub’s Manual, 1913/1914, with the base proportion of 2:1 rather than 3:2. Pepsin or Pepson (as in Savoy) bitters are defunct, but the name suggests a digestive purpose, for which scarcely anything is so good as Underberg (which would often be called Boonekamp bitters in the old days); granted, they were perhaps closer to standard Angostura or Boker’s in flavor. JM 1916 called for his apparent sponsors, Gordon’s and M&R.
 

233. Merry Widow Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1 oz Beefeater London Dry Gin
  1 oz Dubonnet Rouge Grand Apéritif

Fill mixing-glass with ice, stir, strain into cocktail glass, twist orange peel over glass, garnish, serve. — The fancifully named drink alludes to a play and an operetta. JM1908 calls for Byrrh wine instead of Dubonnet. This is typical of that period, as several of the drinks of this kind (excepting those with Dubonnet or St Raphael in the name) used Byrrh instead of Dubonnet as a rule. Straub 1913 has a variant of this Merry Widow (there are several recipes by the name) gives the option of Sweet Vermouth or Byrrh, but the similarity ends there. It also includes maraschino and Dry Vermouth (but no gin) and is to be shaken rather than stirred. The Old Waldorf Bar Book matches Grohusko’s recipe but instructs the bartender to frappé rather than stir. JM switches from Byrrh to Dubonnet in 1916.
 

232. McLane Cocktail

My interpretation
  1 oz Beefeater Gin
  0.5 oz Casa Mariol Vermut Negra
  0.5 oz Noilly Prat Extra Dry

Shake 20 seconds in mixing-glass with cracked ice, strain into cocktail glass, express orange peel and garnish. — Straub 1913, under the entry by this name, informs the reader: “Same as Perfect Cocktail.” This is given as 1/2 jigger of gin, 1/3 jiggers each of Sweet and Dry vermouths, and an orange peel, shaken. The orange peel is meant to be shaken in the drink, and possibly used as a garnish as well. Clearly, this is a shaken Perfect Martini with addition of orange oil either in the shaking or expressed on top, according to preference.
 

 

231. McHenry Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1 oz Beefeater London Dry Gin
  1 oz Casa Mariol Vermut Negra
  1 dash Fee Brothers Orange Bitters
  1 tsp or bsp Rothman & Winter Apricot liqueur

Fill mixing-glass with ice, stir, strain, serve. — This augmented Martini, previously in JM1916, is found first in Straub 1913, where, as here, the reader is referred to the Martini Cocktail. To begin, therefore, we consult the Martini Cocktail on the previous page:

The only difference there is that Straub calls for stirring the Martini “well.” To this, then, is added 1 tsp of Apricot “brandy” (Hungarian in Straub), meaning, we may safely say, not the clean eau de vie des apricots, but the sweet, fruity, fragrant kind of dram pungent enough to be noticeable at the ratio of 1 tsp to 2 oz of remaining liquids (Straub specifies 1 bsp).

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.

229. Mauser Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1 oz Beefeater London Dry Gin
  1 oz Alessio Chinato Vermouth
  1 tsp Laird’s Straight Apple Brandy

Shake with ice, strain into cocktail glass, serve. — This recipe, essentially a Martini riff with apple brandy replacing the orange bitters accent, comes from Straub 1913 and is taken up into JM 1916. The name may derive from the noted firearms manufacturer.