304. Rolls-Royce Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1 oz Castle & Key Dry Gin
  0.5 oz Dolin Dry
  0.5 oz Vermut Lustau
  1 dash DOM Benedictine

Fill shaker half-full with cracked ice, shake 20-30 seconds, strain into cocktail glass, serve. — This Perfect Martini with Benedictine is found in the Savoy Cocktail Book (1930) and was found popular or worthy enough to be included in JM 1933.

214. Lone Tree Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1 oz Bluecoat Gin
  0.5 oz Noilly Prat Extra Dry
  0.5 oz Alessio Vermouth Chinato

Fill mixing-glass with ice, shake, strain into cocktail glass, serve. — This perfect Martini riff is shaken instead of stirred, and found in several books. The first JM to feature it is the Third Edition (1912 or 1910s) where it is misspelled “Lond Tree.” This recipe is reflected in the Savoy Cocktail Book (1930) in a “thirds” ratio, with the addition of Orange Bitters, while McElhone (1927) calls for simply squeezing the orange peel in the shaker. These niceties might have been missed by Jack and anyone else peeking at the old Waldorf bar manual. A variant recipe in Straub (1913) and the Waldorf Bar Book (1935) indicates equal portions of Old Tom Gin and Sweet Vermouth with a dash of Orange Bitters. The latter publication traces the origin to drink enjoyed at the Old Waldorf by golfers playing at a certain course outside Philadelphia.

159. Hall Cocktail

My interpretation:
  0.75 oz Dolin Dry
  0.75 oz Dolin Rouge
  0.66 oz Castle & Key London Dry

Stir with ice, strain into cocktail glass, garnish with olive. — This perfect martini riff with olive garnish first appears in Straub 1913 in equal parts (1/3 jigger each ingredient), from which it was borrowed for JM 1916 with a slight reduction in gin. Presumably this was to enable easier measuring using Jack’s particular bar equipment; or else he may have thought that such a miniscule reduction of gin would result in substantial savings for his pocket. The old method calls for dropping the unadorned olive in the empty glass and pouring over it the contents of the mixing-glass.
 

141. Four-Dollar Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1 oz Gin Lane 1751 London Dry
  0.5 oz Dolin Dry
  0.5 oz Cocchi Vermouth di Torino

Stir in mixing-glass half-full of ice, strain into cocktail glass, serve. — This recipe, first appearing in laconic Straub 1913 (we have added the instruction to stir with ice) and borrowed for JM 1916, is the definition of a Perfect Martini, that is, a Martini with equal parts of sweet and dry vermouth. The name is humorous. At the time of Straub, a cocktail was about 20 cents, in 1933 about 30 on average. In today’s dollars, that would make this a Hundred Dollar, or Two Hundred Dollar, cocktail; perhaps Double Benjamin rolls of the tongue better?