374. Whiskey Cocktail

My interpretation:
  2 oz Henry McKenna 10 Year Bonded
  1 dash Angostura Bitters
  1 dash Pierre Ferrand Dry Curaçao 

Fill mixing-glass with ice, stir, strain into cocktail glass, serve. — This traditional recipe recalls the earlier phase of mixology when bitters and sugar or sweetening liqueur were dashed in with ice to round off the edges of a bourbon. Straub 1913 specifies cube sugar instead of syrup, with Green River Whisky (“the whisky without a headache”) and lemon peel; for all intents and purposes, an Old Fashioned. The new fashioned, of course, exchanged syrup for sugar; here, it is curaçao. McElhone in 1927 specifies gomme syrup with Scotch or Rye for the base. Craddock has 4 dashes of syrup and uses Canadian Club for his base. The Old Waldorf Bar Book, showing the older recipe, calls for whisky with dashes of angostura and of gum (misprinted “gin”), and then gives the “old style” option with lump sugar, lump ice, and lemon peel. Grohusko figures, what’s the use?—new is better than old.
 

 

355. Two-Spot Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1 oz Pierre Ferrand Dry Curaçao (uncolored)
  1 oz Martell VS Cognac

Fill shaker with ice, shake, strain into cocktail glass, twist lemon peel, garnish, serve. — This Straub 1913 Duo with the unusual call for Curaçao Brun (not readily available here) has been modified in my preparation by the use of a Curaçao which necessarily presents a different flavor profile as well as color. In any event, the drink appears to be a local phenomenon in Straub and Grohusko which did not afterward gain traction.
 

273. Philadelphia Cocktail

My interpretation

  1 oz Aria American Dry Gin

  1 oz Lustau Vermut

  1 dash Pierre Ferrand Dry Curaçao

Stir with ice, strain into cocktail glass, serve. — This recipe first appears in Straub 1913, by the same description (Martini with a dash of curaçao) and from Straub is borrowed into JM 1916. In Straub, however, a dash of Orange Bitters is included in the recipe. I have interpreted the curaçao as a substitute for the bitters, but it would be perhaps more justifiable to see both involved here. Note also that in earlier editions of Jack’s Manual, there is a drink called Philadelphia Bronx, which is essentially a sort of Perfect served in an Old-Fashioned glass and topped off with ginger ale.

265. Parisian Blonde Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1 oz Myers’s Rum
  0.66 oz Pierre Ferrand Dry Curaçao
  0.33 oz light cream

Shake 20-30 seconds with broken ice, strain into cocktail glass, serve. — This creamy, orangey dessert Trio, which resembles a Panama Cocktail with substitution of curaçao for cacao, first appears in the Savoy Cocktail Book (1930), from thence being taken into JM 1933.

259. Oyster Bay Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1 oz Aria American Dry Gin
  1 oz Pierre Ferrand Dry Curaçao

Fill mixing-glass half full of cracked ice, shake 10 seconds, strain into cocktail glass, serve. — This gin and liqueur Duo, named for the locality near New York, appears with the first JM in 1908. Straub 1913 includes it, specifying white curaçao (for this effect, Cointreau might be substituted). Another drink by this name bears little resemblance.

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.

 

174. Honolulu Cocktail

 My interpretation:
  1 tsp powdered sugar
  1 T orange juice
  1/2 T lime juice
  1 dash Pierre Ferrand Dry Curaçao
  1 dash Angostura bitters

Shake with ice, strain, garnish with lemon twist, serve. — The original recipe appearing in Jack’s Manual 1908 and continued in 1910 is quite different, resembling more a whisky highball:

The realization of this recipe’s similarity to the Whisky Highball in the more organized 3rd Edition (1910s) must have led to the new, more Tropical-inspired, gin-based, citrus-heavy recipe that continues thereafter, and which seems more prescient of the tiki style that would shortly develop.

166. Hawaiian Cocktail

My interpretation:
  2 oz Aviation American Gin
  3 dashes Pierre Ferrand Dry Curaçao
  0.5 oz fresh orange juice

Shake 30 seconds with ice, strain into cocktail glass, serve. — This recipe, like the previous one, appears only in JM1933 and seems to be borrowed from the Savoy Cocktail Book (1930), which specifies 4:2:1 ratio of gin, juice, and curacao. A lower portion of juice and the addition of curaçao provides a minimal distinction from the Harvester. One sometimes sees a Hawaiian Cocktail today made with a little pineapple juice rather than orange. This Blossom-style drink should not be confused with the Blue Hawaiian, which features rum and coconut along with pineapple.
 

163. Harvard Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1 oz Lustau Amontillado
  1 oz Dolin Rouge
  2 dashes Angostura bitters
  2 dashes Pierre Ferrand Dry Curaçao

Pour ingredients into (large = 12 oz?) mixing-glass, add ice, stir, strain into cocktail glass, garnish with twisted lemon peel, serve. — This cocktail, now normally known in its brandy (rather than sherry) form, first appears in JM 1910s (Third Edition). The brandy version in the 1935 Waldorf-Astoria book specifies the addition of siphon water.
  

156. Green Room Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1.5 oz Dolin Dry
  0.5 oz Western Grace Brandy
  2 dashes Pierre Ferrand Dry Curaçao

Shake well (30 seconds) with ice, strain into cocktail glass, serve. — This shim or lighter drink, named for the musician’s or actor’s private lounge behind a stage, resembles a Cup, being based on aperitif wine braced by a portion of brandy and flavored with curaçao, only without the ice. It seems to have been borrowed for JM 1933 from the Savoy Cocktail Book (1930) where it is called “a great favourite with mummers.”
 

137. Five Fifteen Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1 oz Dolin Dry
  0.75 oz Pierre Ferrand Dry Curaçao
  0.25 oz heavy cream

Shake well (30 seconds) with ice, strain into cocktail glass, serve. — This lighter after-dinner cocktail first appears in JM 1933 from an unknown source.

 

128. Evans' Cocktail

 My interpretation:
  2 oz Hochstadter’s Straight Rye
  1 dash Pierre Ferrand Dry Curaçao
  1 dash Rothman & Winter Apricot Liqueur
  1 dash Fee Brothers Cardamom Bitters (Boker’s Style)

Fill mixing-glass with cracked ice, stir 30 seconds, strain into cocktail glass, serve. — This JM 1908 standby, a variation on a traditional “fancy” whisky cocktail, originally called for Boker’s Bitters, though this specification soon fell away before the 2nd edition in 1910 (I use Fee Brothers cardamom in tribute to this, and it fits really well with the profile). The apostrophe in the name was added in 1933. Straub borrows the recipe in 1913, omitting bitters altogether. Note that I have taken apricot brandy to indicate the sweeter, fruitier brandy-based liqueur, rather than a drier brandy distilled from apricots; this is supported by the small dosage required, suggesting a more flavorful quality.
 

90. Clifton Cocktail

 

My interpretation:

   1.5 oz Bulleit Rye

  1.5 oz Noilly Prat Extra Dry

  1 dash Angostura bitters

  1 dash Pierre Ferrand Dry Curaçao

Stir ingredients with 1/2 glass cracked ice (for a wetter stir), strain into cocktail glass, and serve. — This recipe goes back to the original JM 1908. The only, and not insignificant, change is the switch from Sweet to Dry Vermouth in the JM 1916, no doubt after the influence of Straub 1913/1914. Originally the drink was a Manhattan riff. Note JM 1908 and 1910:

Straub 1913 (Note corrected spelling):

 

Compare JM 1916 (without Straub’s spelling, but with his French Vermouth; also, retaining generic Curaçao for Straub’s Brown Curaçao):

 

And finally, my version of the later recipe:

 

79. Chinese Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1.5 oz Jack Rudy grenadine
  1.5 oz Myers’s Rum
  2 dashes Angostura bitters
  4 dashes Luxardo maraschino
  4 dashes Pierre Ferrand Dry Curaçao

Shake well (20 seconds) with broken ice, strain into cocktail glass. — The Chinese Cocktail was added to the JM 1933 without precedent in previous editions of the Manual. The proportions on such drinks with multiple dashes of this and that are best kept when we take into account that the original jigger is 2 ounces. Thus in increasing the drink volume for modern taste to about 3 ounces total, the bitters and minor additions may also need adjustment.
 

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.

 

45. Blanche Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1.25 oz Cointreau
  1.25 oz Pierre Ferrand Dry Curaçao
  0.5 oz Romana Sambuca

Shake well (20 seconds), strain into glass. — A dessert duo or trio which should be called simply a Blanche, this is a fine drink, if a little sweet. It is also a post-Prohibition newcomer to the Jack’s Manual, not appearing in earlier editions. Other sources suggest that the drink may originally have called for absinthe blanche, or white absinthe, rather than anisette. Also, it may have originally called for clear curaçao and hence had a white rather than pale orange appearance.

35. Bird Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1.25 oz Pierre Ferrand Dry Curaçao
  1.75 oz Courvoisier VSOP.

Shake well (20 seconds) with ice, strain, serve. Garnish with orange peel. — Not a Cocktail technically, but a simple duo using curaçao as a sweetener. According to Elemental Mixology, Curaçao brun is simply curacao dyed to resemble the color of the mature brown orange. I estimate the use of the authentic ingredient (all but unavailable) would have a darkening effect on the color, but minimal effect on the taste.