383. Zaza Cocktail

 My interpretation:
  1 oz Tinkerman’s Sweet Spice Gin
  1 oz Dubonnet Rouge

Fill mixing-glass with ice, stir, strain into cocktail glass, serve. — Named after the play which debuted in 1901, this Martiniesque Duo first appears in the earliest Jack’s Manuals dating back to 1908 and remained part of the repertoire until the last. Straub adds 1 dash of Angostura bitters with no note whether to stir or shake, McElhone, in Barflies & Cocktails (1927) adds pepsin (pepson) bitters and attributes the recipe to a certain F. Newman of Paris, Craddock in The Savoy Cocktail Book (1930) has no bitters but, like McElhone, calls for shaking it, and The Old Waldorf Bar Days (1931), based on an earlier source, has a softer 1:2 ratio of Old Tom gin and Dubonnet stirred with orange bitters stirred. The effect is simple and elegant.

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.
  

312. St. John Cocktail

My interpretation:

  1 oz Gin Lane 1751 Old Tom Gin

  1 oz Casa Mariol Vermut Negra

  1 dash Fee Brothers Orange Bitters

Stir with ice, strain into cocktail glass, serve. — The second of the three “saints” from the analogous section of Straub, this slightly sweeter Martini varies depending on the Martini recipe referred to. In Straub, it’s a 2:1 sweet vermouth Martini. Grohusko’s Martini is, as typical, adjusted to 1:1, favoring a cheaper mixture (or less-inebriated customer!).

 

306. Rossington Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1.25 oz Gin Lane 1751 Old Tom Gin
  0.75 oz Noilly Prat Rouge

Fill mixing-glass with ice, stir well (20 seconds), strain into cocktail glass, twist orange peel, garnish, serve. — There are two Rossingtons (AKA Martinis), one with dry gin, dry vermouth, and lemon peel, and another as given here. The Dry Rossington appears in JM1910–1912. After Straub’s influence, JM1916 has the Sweet Rossington with Old Tom. Thus I justify interpreting JM1933’s unqualified “gin” along the same lines. A similar pair of dry and sweet Rossingtons is found in the Old Waldorf Bar Days (1931). Spelled “Rosington” in the Savoy (1930), it is there built as 2:1 with dry gin to sweet vermouth orange peel.

127. Emerson Cocktail

 My interpretation:
  1 oz Hayman’s Old Tom Gin
  0.5 oz Cocchi Vermouth di Torino
  0.5 oz fresh lime juice
  3 dashes Luxardo maraschino

Fill shaker with cracked ice, shake, strain into cocktail glass, serve. — Borrowed without change from Straub 1913 for JM 1916, this interestingly balanced mixture hovers between a Martinez and an Aviation, a sort of Martinez sour (as some have noted) which does best with a slightly bitter vermouth.

55. Brighton Cocktail

 My interpretation:
  1.5 oz Carpano Antica
  0.75 oz Uncle Val’s Restorative
  0.75 oz Hayman’s Old Tom Gin
  1 dash Regan’s Orange Bitters

Stir well (20 seconds) with ice, garnish with twisted lemon peel, serve. — Another interesting cocktail apparently picked up from Straub 1914 for the JM 1916 edition, this “Martini” riff sweetens the gin side slightly with a spot of Old Tom.

25. Bath Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1.5 oz Uncle Val’s Restorative Gin
  1.5 oz Martini & Rossi Rosso Sweet Vermouth
  4 dashes Amaro CioCiaro

Fill mixing-glass with cracked ice, stir, strain, and serve. Garnish with orange peel. — What we might call a sweet Martini or Martinez riff, shorthand for anything built on gin and sweet vermouth. Amer Picon is available in the States only to a select few bartenders and mixologists who have some private conduit to Europe; and in any case, the recipe has changed from the olden days, and generally almost any orange-heavy amaro will fit the bill. Amaro CioCiaro works great for me. If it’s slightly sweeter, Uncle Val’s is drier than the Old Tom gin called for here (Hayman’s would work too), and things balance pretty nicely.

16. Astoria Cocktail

Note: This page (42) in the 1933 edition of Jack’s Manual seems to be missing its attributions to distinguish which vermouth is needed. Now, we could go back to the original recipe for this famous hotel cocktail. But comparative historic mixologists need look no further than the enlightening 1916 edition of the Manual:

Note, not only is it French or Dry Vermouth, but the Gin is (Old) Tom!
 
My interpretation:
  1 dash Fee Brothers Orange Bitters
  1.75 oz Uncle Val’s Restorative Gin
  1.25 oz Martini & Rossi Extra Dry mixed with Dolin Blanc.

Stir over ice, strain into cocktail glass, garnish with lemon rind. 

Following the 1933 edition as much as possible, I decline the Old Tom Gin. Either tastes changed after Prohibition, or Old Tom couldn’t be got so easily anymore, or (since Jack still calls for Old Tom elsewhere) the recipe was altered. And here again I felt a little softening of the vermouth with Dolin Blanc was called for—perhaps that touch of sweetness which the Old Tom would have provided.
 

3. Alaska Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1 dash Regan’s Orange Bitters
  1.25 oz Yellow Chartreuse
  1.75 oz Uncle Val’s Restorative Gin

Talk about laconic instructions (see previous post), here Jack gives us none. I take my cue instead from the great state of Alaska and stir it over a glass 3/4 full of cracked ice. (Although my Hayman’s Old Tom was not accessible at the time of preparation, I think the Uncle Val’s Restorative worked well in the cocktail, especially given the sweetness of the chartreuse.) Garnish with orange peel—though sans garnish would be fine.