368. Washington Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1.75 oz Noilly Prat Extra Dry
  0.25 oz Copper & Kings Brandy
  1 dash Pierre Ferrand Dry Curaçao
  1 dash Angostura bitters

Fill mixing-glass with broken ice, stir, strain into cocktail glass, serve. — This light, vermouth-forward aperitif recipe first appears in JM1912 and remains a standard part of the JM repertoire. It later appears from an undetermined source in McElhone’s Barflies & Cocktails (1927) in the ratio 2:1 vermouth to brandy, with 2 dashes of syrup instead of curacao, and 2 dashes of bitters. That recipe is reproduced exactly in
The Savoy Cocktail Book (1930).
 

298. Richmond Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1.5 oz Dolin Dry Vermouth
  0.5 oz Noilly Prat Rouge
  1 dash Pierre Ferrand Dry Curaçao

Fill mixing-glass with fine ice, stir, strain, and serve. — This light, vermouth-based cocktail first appears in JM1908. It is borrowed by Straub in 1913, which alters the ratio to 2:1 and changes stirring to shaking. The Savoy Cocktail Book (1930) features a stiffer Richmond Cocktail, similarly a Duo, but composed of 2 parts Plymouth Vermouth and 1 part Kina Lillet, with a squeeze of lemon. While apparently different in effect, it’s possible that the color of the Kina Lillet (amber) and Plymouth Gin (clear) appeared to match the vermouth components of this Richmond, so that the recipe derives from the same source, if inexactly reproduced, or else intentionally amended. The Savoy Richmond, incidentally, is shaken like the Straub version.

251. Old Fashioned Cocktail

The recipe speaks for itself. 100% liquor suggests 2 oz, though this may be adjusted according to the glass (rather adjust the glass and ice than the liquor, though!). The 1908 garnish is a lemon twist. Generally the instructions continue unchanged, even being imitated by Straub in 1913/1914. Barflies & Cocktails (1927) still shows the later popularity of the squeezed lemon peel, but specifies caster (granulated) sugar in place of cut loaf sugar. Either will do. What won’t do is a syrup instead of sugar. The mixing of the sugar and water in the glass is one defining characteristic of the Old Fashion(ed). The curiosity here is the inclusion of Curaçao, which is unknown elsewhere, neither in Strau, nor in Harry’s book, nor in the Old Waldorf book, the latter of which gives an interesting anecdote (besides specifying a small spoon, like the Junkins):

 Thus the dash of Curaçao must be considered unique to Jack Grohusko, perhaps suggested from an earlier old-fashioned or otherwise “fancy” or “improved” preparation of liquor, for which Curaçao and Maraschino were so often called on to play the augmenting role. Nevertheless, a change in the garnish is not noted until 1933, after Prohibition, when we are suddenly met with the fanciful orange-lemon-cherry garnish. In 1931, however, the Savoy Cocktail Book specifies in addition to the lemon twist a slice of orange. This fits happily with Jack’s unique use of curaçao alongside bitters. The orange-lemon-cherry garnish, and the drink overall, is prophetic of the direction it would take by the middle of the century.

 I include pictures of the four versions mentioned specifically, though obviously others are intimated (e.g., Scotch, Tom gin, Irish whisky, apple brandy).

244. Netherland Cocktail

Netherland, not “-lands.” This recipe, which Jack may have gotten from Straub 1913/1914 (both require “good brandy”), is claimed by the Old Waldorf Bar Book to be named for, and derived from, the (New) Netherland Hotel (1893–1927), a Waldorf-Astor property. I suppose they should know, though the orangey-ness of the drink suggests at least a passing familiarity with the “old” Netherland and the importance of that fruit and color to its history (not to mention Curaçao then belonging to Dutch Antilles).
 

241. Morning Cocktail

The Morning Cocktail is an old standard shared by several cocktail manuals, always involving brandy and sweet vermouth augmented by dashes of various ingredients and served with a lemon twist. The name recalls the origin of the cocktail as a genteel morning pick-me-up. This version in JM1933 goes back to the first edition in 1908, showing by its lack of change the perfection of this early form and the regard for it among genteel morning-tide tipplers. Barflies and Cocktails (1927) specifies orange bitters for the generic bitters given here (I used Fee Brothers Cardamom/Boker’s Style this time), and adds a cherry in the glass along with the twist, which variation is reproduced also in the Savoy Cocktail Book (1930). JM omits the cherry.
 

238. Millionaire Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1.5 oz Rittenhouse Rye
  1 egg white
  1 tsp Pierre Ferrand Dry Curaçao
  2 dashes Jack Rudy Grenadine
  1 dash Regan’s Orange Bitters

Shake well (30 seconds) with cracked ice, strain into large (claret) glass, serve. — Note that while I usually humor JM when it calls unnecessarily for shaking, I could not here countenance the prospect of imbibing a drink in which the egg white is merely stirred. However, the stirring technique is specific all the way back to Straub 1913, from which it is reproduced in JM 1916. This must be an error. The same recipe in Barflies and Cocktails (1927) is indeed well shaken, where it is also attributed to the Ritz Hotel, London. The Savoy Cocktail Book has two Millionaire cocktails, neither of which we need concern ourselves with here. The only resemblance is that one of them has an egg white (well shaken, naturally).

There is, however, in the Jack’s Manual tradition a different, earlier “Millionaire’s” (with possessive) recipe going back to JM1910 and corroborated to some degree in the 1931 Old Waldorf Bar Book, where it is called “Millionaire” and described as a Martini with grenadine poured on top, in a glass. JM1910 is a little more complex but essentially the same drink: A 5:4:1 mix of dry gin, dry vermouth, and grenadine with juice of 1/2 lime, stirred. This drink was no doubt replaced by the richer but unrelated Ritz / Straub drink to avoid confusion. Pictured below is the result of that later recipe:

 

228. Mary Garden Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1.5 oz Dubonnet Rouge
  0.5 oz Dolin Dry Vermouth
  1 dash Pierre Ferrand Dry Curaçao

Fill mixing-glass with cracked ice, stir, strain into cocktail glass, serve. — Named after the famous, early-20th c. opera singer (d. 1967), this lighter, aperitif wine-based cocktail first appears in JM 1916.

219. Maiden's Blush

 

My interpretation:

  2 oz Bluecoat American Gin

  4 dashes Pierre Ferrand Dry Curaçao

  4 dashes homemade raspberry syrup or Jack Rudy grenadine

  1 dash lemon juice

Shake well, strain into cocktail glass, serve. — This refreshing cocktail first appears in The Savoy Cocktail Book (1930), from which it is taken without change into JM1933. Another recipe by this name, but with absinthe, appears earlier in the 1927 Barflies and Cocktails. As in former days grenadine or raspberry syrup were sometimes interchangeable, I found that my raspberry syrup provided a better “blush” than my “good” natural grenadine. You might have better (brighter) success with Rose’s Grenadine, but you would have to deal with that candied-fruit aftertaste, not to mention the corn syrup. Below I show first the Grenadine version (closer in hue to peach or skin tone) and secondly the better-looking version with raspberry syrup.

202. Knickerbocker Special Cocktail

 My interpretation:
  1.5 oz Appleton Estate
  0.5 oz Pierre Ferrand Dry Curaçao
  1 tsp homemade raspberry syrup
  1 tsp fresh lemon juice
  1 tsp fresh orange juice
  1/4 slice pineapple (peeled, for mixer)

Shake ingredients together with ice, including quarter pineapple slice. Strain into cocktail glass, garnish with fresh pineapple, serve. — Although a Knickerbocker Special (not a Cocktail) was included from the first JM 1908, which called for similar ingredients (with St. Croix rum) to be poured in a glass with cracked ice and dressed “with fruits in season,” the present recipe, which is a variation thereof, appears in The Savoy Cocktail Book (1930), where the instructions are absent. It seems that it was borrowed thence on the assumption that a smaller, iceless recipe was meant. The Waldorf-Astoria Bar Book, in its chapter on punches, further specifies a claret float. At any rate, a “cocktail” in this period would suggest a strained drink served in a cocktail glass (with or without bitters), making this an adaptation of the original Knickerbocker Special (Punch), which would accordingly be served in a punch glass. That recipe appears elsewhere in Jack’s Manual.

191. Japanese Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1.0 oz Casa Mariol Vermut Negra
  0.75 oz Hochstadter’s Bonded Rye
  0.25 oz Jack Rudy grenadine
  2 dashes Pierre Ferrand Dry Curaçao

Shake vigorously with broken ice 30 strokes, strain, serve. — This recipe dates back to JM 1908 and is picked up by Straub in 1913. Japanese Cocktail is otherwise, and now more normally, a cognac-orgeat recipe with lemon peel, as in the 1930 Savoy Cocktail Book.