372. Wedding Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1 oz Tinkerman’s Sweet Spice Gin
  0.25 oz Noilly Prat Extra Dry
  0.25 oz Martini & Rossi Rosso
  2 barspoons Pierre Ferrand Dry Curaçao
  1 oz fresh orange juice

Fill mixing-glass with cracked ice, shake, strain into a claret glass (a stemmed glass of about 5 oz capacity), and serve. —This cocktail as described in JM1933 is without precedent. However, McElhone and Craddock both mention a similar cocktail consisting of gin, orange juice, cherry brandy, and Dubonnet, called the Wedding Belle or Wedding Bells, of which this may theoretically represent a variant. In effect, it is a long Bronx sweetened by addition of curaçao and additional juice.

366. Waldorf Queen Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1 oz Tinkerman’s Gin (Sweet Spice)
  0.5 oz Martini & Rossi Rosso
  0.5 Dolin Dry
  1 quarter orange
  2 quarter-slices pineapple

Muddle pineapple in shaker, add ingredients and fine ice, rappé well (shake vigorously 30 till nicely frosted), strain into cocktail glass, serve. — In 1913, Jacques Straub, ever the entrepeneur of all things Waldorf, includes this Bronx variant under the name Waldorf Queen’s. JM1916 picks up with slight variation, dropping the possessive marker (and thus any connection to a New York borough name, a là Bronx). The same drink proved popular and was included in books like McElhone’s 1927 Barflies & Cocktails (under the simplified name Waldorf). The Old Waldorf Bar Days (1931), which usually holds the best claim, calls it the Waldorf Bronx and makes it much simpler than a Bronx, with only gin, orange juice, and pineapple slices:

Here is my version of Jack’s recipe.

363. Virgin Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1 oz Plymouth Gin
  1 oz Martini & Rossi sweet vermouth
  3 dashes Angostura bitters
  2 dashes homemade raspberry syrup

Fill mixing-glass half full of ice, stir well (30 seconds), strain into cocktail glass, serve. — This martini + raspberry and angostura first appears in JM 1908 specifying Plymouth gin. The specification falls away by 1933. A different recipe by the same name appears in Barflies & Cocktails (1927) calling for Forbidden Fruit liqueur, creme de menthe, and gin, which is also in the Savoy Cocktail Book (1930). This book has also has a Virgin Special, a large-format drink with raspberry, gooseberry, redcurrant, brandy, gin, and fruit.

362. Vienna Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1 oz Martini & Rossi Rosso (sweet vermouth)
  1 oz Noilly Prat extra dry vermouth
  1 dash St. George absinthe verte

Fill mixing-glass with fine ice, frappé (shake vigorously), strain into cocktail glass, serve. — This vermouth x2 duo + absinthe first appears in Straub 1913. A light drink that can be enjoyed anytime, it can easily be imagined being deposited on a small café table in Vienna, Austria or Vienna, Virginia.

361. Vermouth Cocktail

2 oz Martini & Rossi sweet vermouth
1 dash Fee Brother’s cardamom bitters
1 dash Luxardo maraschino

Fill mixing-glass with fine ice, frappé (shake well), strain into cocktail, serve. — This recipe appears in JM 1908 following the Vermouth Frappé, the distinction apparently confined to the addition here of maraschino. Boker’s bitters is best replicated by Dr. Elmegirab’s Boker’s bitters, but any aromatic bitters will do adequately here if the vermouth has a harmonious character. The Savoy Cocktail Book (1930) gives the option sweet or dry vermouth, and of 4 dashes orange bitters or 1 dash Angostura, but no maraschino; the drink is stirred rather than shaken. The Old Waldorf Bar Book (1931) lists the French and Italian Vermouth Cocktails separately, calling for one dash of orange bitters for each.

351. Turf Club Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1 oz Bols Genever
  1 oz Martini & Rossi Vermouth Rosso

Fill mixing-glass half full with ice, stir well, strain into cocktail glass, serve. — This sweet Martini riff calls simply for “gin” here, which in Jack’s Manual should be a clue that a non-dry gin is meant, usually Holland or Old Tom. In JM 1912, the first JM appearance, the Holland gin is called for. The analogous recipe in Straub 1913 (called “Turf Cocktail No. 2” and adding bitters), has a malty, bread-like quality which is offset nicely by the vermouth and distinguishes the drink from the standard sweet Martini. Straub’s version with the bitters shows up again in The Old Waldorf Bar Days (1931), as he probably got it from the Old Waldorf bar. Depending on the vermouth, bitters could improve the drink; with a vermouth like Cocchi it might overdo it.
 

350. Turf Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1 oz Castle & Key London Dry Gin
  1 oz Martini & Rossi Sweet Vermouth
  2 dashes St. George Absinthe Verte
  2 dashes Luxardo maraschino
  2 dashes Regan’s Orange Bitters
  1 dash Fee Brothers Cardamom Bitters

Fill mixing-glass half full of ice, stir well, strain into cocktail glass, drop in olive, serve. — This Dry Martini augmented by dashes from half the liquor cabinet appears in JM1908 and continues unchanged. It becomes the Turf Cocktail No. 1 in Straub 1913, where the No. 2 is Holland gin, sweet vermouth, and bitters—essentially a Sweet Martini with genever, which is the recipe named “Turf Club” in JM1916 (see the next post), but simply “Turf” in the Old Waldorf Bar Book (1931).

 

349. Tulane Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1 oz Castle & Key London Dry Gin
  1 oz Martini & Rossi Sweet Vermouth
  1 tsp strawberry syrup

Fill shaker with fine ice, shake, strain into cocktail glass, serve. — This Dry Martini with a strawberry twist first appears in Straub 1914. Since I had strawberry syrup made recently, I used that instead of strawberry brandy. The difference is probably minimal at such a small quantity.

347. Trowbridge Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1 oz Castle & Key London Dry Gin
  1 oz Martini & Rossi Sweet Vermouth
  1 dash Regan’s Orange Bitters

Fill mixing-glass half full with ice, stir, strain into whisky glass, garnish with orange twist, serve. — This Sweet Martini with a twist, served down, first appears in Straub 1913 in a 2:1 ratio, sweetened up to 1:1, as usual, when copied by JM1916. There is no mention of ice, so a legitimate form of this drink would include a direct pour, esp. if the vermouth is duly chilled.

157. Grit Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1 oz Jameson Caskmates Stout Edition
  1 oz Cocchi Vermouth di Torino

Shake with ice, strain into cocktail glass, serve. — This Emerald riff, or Irish Manhattan, omitting the orange bitters, was borrowed from Straub 1913 to appear in JM 1916 calling for Martini & Rossi (who paid a fee for the honor).
 

78. Chauncey Cocktail

My interpretation:
  0.75 oz Asbach Uralt
  0.75 oz Bombay Sapphire
  0.75 oz Martini & Rossi Rosso
  0.75 oz Old Forester Signature

Fill mixing-glass with cracked ice, shake, strain, and serve. — This bracing Quartet comes from Straub 1913/1914 and may be named for the street in Brooklyn (named in turn for a US Navy lieutenant in the War of 1812) or else for the Brooklynite businessman and Baseball bastion George Chauncey (fl. late-19th c.).

77. Chantecler Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1.5 oz Bombay Sapphire
  0.75 oz Dolin Extra Dry
  0.75 oz Martini & Rossi Rosso
  4 dashes Jack Rudy Grenadine

Shake with ice, finely strain, serve. — This abbreviated recipe, named after Edmond Rostand’s play which premiered in 1910–1911 (correctly in the French spelling, not Americanized “Chanticleer”), appears first in Straub 1913/1914, from whence it is copied almost word for word. It is a subtle variation on the Bronx notable for its distinction in color more than in taste, unless a fine grenadine is used.

 

71. Calumet Club Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1.5 oz Old Forester Signature 100 Proof
  1.5 oz Martini & Rossi Rosso
  3 dashes Extinct Chemical Co., Horsford’s Acid Phosphate
  1 dash Angostura bitters.

Stir with ice, strain into cocktail glass, and serve. — The acid phosphate is here a crucial component, adding a pleasant subtle tartness not achievable with citrus juices; without it we have a basic Bourbon Manhattan. The question whether to use ice, though no ice or straining is indicated in Straub’s recipe, must be answered in the affirmative, taking into consideration Straub’s typical brevity, the practice of the times which generally called for ice chilling and dilution, and the recipe in Washburne & Bronner’s Beverages De Luxe. which prescribes stirring and straining. Here it refers to the club in Chicago, Illinois. While a Calumet Club occupied a building at 267 Fifth Avenue in New York, since this recipe comes to us from Mr. Jacques Straub, a bartender of St. Louis latterly in Chicago, it is naturally to the Club of that City, organized in 1878 and located at 24 Michigan Ave., that its origin is trace, from whence, entering into Straub’s repertoire, it presumably passed into JM 1916.



  

65. Butcher Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1.5 oz The Famous Grouse Blended Scotch
  0.75 oz Bombay Sapphire
  0.75 oz Martini & Rossi Rosso

Fill mixing-glass with broken ice (i.e., about 10-12 oz broken ice), stir, strain, and serve. 
— This bracing Jack’s Manual stand-by first appears on the 1910 edition and continues unchanged. Was it named for a local butcher who liked a fix after a long day at the chopping-block, or for its impenitent butchering of esteemed mixological traditions? The unexpected harmony between Gin and Scotch has since been rediscovered in the “Smoky Martini.”

 

59. Brooklyn Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1.5 oz Bulleit Rye
  1.5 oz Martini & Rossi Rosso
  1 dash Amaro Ciociaro
  1 dash Luxardo maraschino

Fill mixing-glass with ice, stir, strain, and serve. — Much has been said of this Cocktail, universally attributed to Jack Grohusko (who includes it from 1908), with the bulk of commentary focusing on its slow reception and the alteration of the recipe in Straub 1913 by substitution of dry vermouth for sweet. Given that most of Straub’s borrowings from JM are patently aware of the difference between sweet and dry vermouth (the terminology “regular vermouth” for sweet appears later after the Sad Era), one must assume that Straub preferred the dry, perhaps for the sake of distinction as well as or more than for the sake of taste. The most Brooklynite aspect of this drink may be the prescription of a nigh-unobtainable ingredient and the ensuing quasi-gnostic debates regarding how the bartender obtained said contraband or which substitution may be best.
 

51. Bornn’s Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1.5 oz St. George Botanivore
  1.5 oz Martini & Rossi Rosso
  1 dash Pierre Ferrand Dry Curaçao

Stir with broken ice, strain, serve. Garnish with twisted orange peel if desired. — This drink appears in the first JM 1908 with Ballor vermouth and a “high and dry” gin and brown curaçao. In 1916 the sponsored M&R vermouth and Gordon’s dry come in, and in 1933, curaçao brun being presumably more difficult to obtain, the brown color is dropped from the prescription (though not in a few other recipes). This is a decent house variation on the classic (sweet) Martini.

 

49. Bonnett Cocktail

This drink, properly a Sling rather than a Cocktail, seems to have been a house specialty at Baracca’s. It appears from the start in JM 1908 and continues to the end, though, unlike the Brooklyn Cocktail, it is not picked up by Straub. The 1933 recipe raises a few questions, for instance, the type of glass. This is answered by an instruction omitted after 1908:
 

Notice Ballor Vermouth is a sweet, not a dry as in the 1933 edition; in fact, all earlier editions call for some kind of Italian vermouth. Also, using a champagne glass, that is, something more ample than a 2-3 oz cocktail coupe, makes sense. The bowl of such a glass should be about 5-6 oz, and one should be able to stir the contents without difficulty or disaster, thus a thin punch glass or footed highball or small goblet as for a Singapore Sling.

My interpretation:
  2 T lime juice
  1.5 oz Benedictine
  1.5 oz Martini & Rossi Rosso
  
Build drink in glass with large ice cube, stir, top up with soda. Garnish with pineapple slice. 

48. Boles Cocktail

My interpretation:
  0.75 oz Gallo Dry
  0.75 oz Martini & Rossi Rosso
  1.5 oz St. George Botanivore

Build drink in glass, add large ice, stir, express orange peel and garnish. — This drink, which might be called a cocktail with the addition of (improving) bitters, first appears in Straub (1913, 1914), and from thence is taken up in JM (1916). There, perhaps in exchange for sponsorship monies, Jack likes to specify Martini & Rossi sweet vermouth and Gordon Dry Gin, whereas in 1908 he used Ballor chinato for his sweet component and Chappaz for the French. It may be that Baracca’s or a neighboring shop was importing these brands specially. One wonders whether this drink was originally spelt Bols and called for that brand of gin or genever; nevertheless, it is a dry gin here. This drink is especially good for those inclined to overturning their perfect martinis when served in stemware.

44. Blackthorne Cocktail

A couple things to note about this recipe. In 1933, the teaspoonful of syrup has been (perhaps?) increased to a plain spoonful. The 1/4 teaspoon of lemon juice was changed in 1916 to the juice of a 1/4 lemon, and that continues in 1933. The original 3 dashes of Angostura bitters (besides the 2 of orange bitters) were reduced to two dashes of unspecified bitters in 1910 and eliminated thereafter.

My interpretation:
  1 teaspoon syrup
  juice of 1/4 lemon (= 1 teaspoon)
  2 dashes Fee Brothers Orange Bitters
  1.5 oz Martini & Rossi Rosso
  1.5 oz Plymouth Sloe Gin

Fill mixing-glass 2/3 full of fine ice (beaten with mallet and bag), stir well (20 seconds), strain, serve. — An old and venerable cocktail. One can’t help wishing the Angostura bitters had been left in; the drink is not quite there without them, though still quite drinkable.

41. Blackstone No. 1.

 My interpretation:
  2.25 oz Uncle Val’s Restorative Gin
  0.75 oz Martini & Rossi Rosso

Shake with cracked ice, strain. Squeeze lemon peel and use for garnish. Another “Martini” variation named for the Chicago hotel (see Blackstone, Blackstone No. 2). In Jack’s 1916 edition, following Straub (1914) he calls for Old Tom Gin.