325. Sir Walter Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1 oz Bacardì silver (Appleton Estate)
  1 oz Christian Brothers Sacred Bond (Copper & Kings Brandy)
  1 tsp fresh lemon juice
  1 tsp Pratt Standard grenadine (Jack Rudy grenadine)
  1 tsp Pierre Ferrand dry curaçao

Shake 30 seconds with ice, strain into cocktail glass, serve. — I tried this twice, once with white rum, once with Jamaican. Both were good, as may be expected from sweet-leaning a dual-liquor proto-tiki drink with a tart tinge. The peculiar wording betrays the quasi-punch recipe as a direct borrowing from McElhone’s Barflies & Cocktails (1927). It is also found in the Savoy Cocktail Book (1933) with a similar recipe.
 

319. S. G. Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1 oz William Wolf Rye
  1 oz fresh lemon juice
  2 T fresh orange juice
  1 tsp Jack Rudy grenadine

Shake well, strain into cocktail glass, serve. — This classic punch-style recipe, too sweet for a Sour, too sour for a Blossom, is found in McElhone’s Barflies & Cocktails (1927) in an equal-thirds formulation, where it is described as being popular among the Scots Guards, hence the initials. The Savoy (1930) changes the rye to Canadian Club whisky (i.e., Canadian rye).

316. Savoy Tango Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1 oz Plymouth Gin
  1 oz Laird’s Applejack 

Shake 20 seconds, strain into cocktail glass, serve. — This boozy Duo recipe (of course it takes two to “tango”), originally from the Savoy Cocktail Book (1930) is first borrowed for JM1933, but with the unfortunate typo which turns the original sloe gin into an unspecified kind of gin and makes a less palatable drink (esp. if you only have Applejack instead of the Bonded Apple Brandy), which is why we cannot suppose the alteration from sloe gin to gin to be purposeful (usually in JM1933, “gin” represents an older Tom gin, while dry gin and plymouth gin are specified by name).
 

The original Savoy cocktail is less boozy and more balanced:
 

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.

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.

295. Raymond Hitch-Cocktail

My interpretation:
  2 oz Vermut Lustau
  1 T fresh orange juice
  1 slice pineapple + 1 piece (for garnish)

Shake with pineapple slice 20 seconds, strain into cocktail glass, garnish with fresh pineapple piece, serve. — This light vermouth-based cocktail with a humorous name (a play on the name Raymond Hitchcock) is found in Savoy (1930), from which it appears to be taken into JM 1933.

292. Racquet Club Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1 oz Castle & Key Dry Gin
  1 oz Dolin Dry Vermouth

Fill mixing-glass with ice, stir (or more authentically, shake), strain into cocktail glass, twist orange peel over and garnish; serve. — This 1:1 Dry Martini with a twist first appears by this name in Straub 1913 and is borrowed for JM 1916. It appears in Savoy (1930) as a 2:1 Dry Martini shaken with orange bitters. The Old Waldorf Bar Days (1931) has both orange bitters and peel, and calls for frappé (thus shaken). The lack of instruction whether to shake or stir is due to the omission in typically terse Straub.
 

290. Quaker's Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1.25 oz Copper & Kings Brandy
  0.5 oz Myers’s Rum
  0.25 oz homemade raspberry syrup
  1 T or 0.25 oz lemon juice

Shake well, strain into cocktail glass, serve. — This balanced Rum Daisy-inspired concoction first appears in Barflies (1927) and Savoy (1930) books with equal portions of the Rum and Brandy, from which it is probably borrowed and adjusted for JM 1933.
  

279. Plaza Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1.5 oz Aria American Dry Gin
  0.5 oz Lustau Vermut
 1 slice pineapple

Fill mixing-glass with broken ice, shake (including piece of pineapple), strain, rinsing strainer of pineapple pulp if necessary, serve in cocktail glass with pineapple garnish. — This ananas-tinged Martini-riff, named for the Plaza Hotel of New York fame (thus often found as “Hotel Plaza Cocktail”) is first found in Straub 1913 with typically terse directions, reproduced in JM1916 with the ratio 13:7 or roughly 2:1 gin to vermouth. This is rounded up to 3:1 in 1933. What to do with the pineapple is the primary question, at which most recipes guess. Barflies & Cocktails (1927) gives the recipe in equal thirds: gin, sweet vermouth, dry vermouth, along with a “chunk of pineapple” ambiguously mentioned twice, both in the ingredients and in the service. The popular Savoy (1930) version copies a feebler equal-thirds version. By 1932, this cocktail is found, e.g., in the Stafford Bros.’ book, in equal fourths with pineapple juice taking the last slot in place of the pineapple piece (to strain which might slow the bar service considerably); this last recipe, though perhaps degenerate in its call for juice, is nevertheless evidence that the the pineapple is no mere garnish, but an ingredient integral to the drink’s identity.

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.

218. Mah-Jongg Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1 oz Cointreau
  1 oz Bluecoat American Dry Gin
  0.5 oz Bacardì Superior White Rum

Shake well (20 seconds), strain into cocktail glass, serve. — This exotically titled recipe appears first in the Savoy Cocktail Book (1935) and from thence is borrowed only for JM1933, the fifth and final edition. In the process, the ratio is changed, since Savoy indicates a 4:1:1 ratio of Gin to Cointreau and Rum (probably conceived as 2/3 Gin and 1/3 Cointreau-Rum mix); Jack’s ratio is 2:2:1, significantly upping the Cointreau quotient and reducing the rum to a background accent by comparison. Using white rum, this drink affords a pearly white quality when shaken, here enhanced by the iridescent effect of Roman glass.
 

213. London Cocktail

My interpretation:
  2 oz Captive Spirits Big Gin
  2 dashes Regan’s Orange Bitters
  2 dashes gum syrup
  2 dashes Hiram Walker Anisette

Shake well (30 seconds), strain into cocktail glass, serve. — This recipe follows almost exactly the 1930 Savoy Cocktail Book, except for the Anisette in place of original Absinthe. Since Jack retains absinthe in other recipes, this is a curious change, though we know from experience that he generally makes his drinks a little weaker, and this may be for that purpose.

205. Lawhill Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1 oz Rittenhouse Rye
  1 oz Noilly Prat Dry Vermouth
  1 dash Hiram Walker Anisette
  1 dash Luxardo Maraschino
  1 dash Angostura bitters

Shake well (30 seconds), strain into cocktail glass. — This riff on a dry Manhattan appears to be a variation of that in the Savoy Cocktail Book (1930), substituting generic rye for Canadian Club and anisette for absinthe. Jack has also adjusted the proportion of base and vermouth from 2:1 to 1:1. The combined result is slightly weaker and less expensive, but none the less interesting.
 

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.

198. John Wood Cocktail

My interpretation:
  0.5 oz The Famous Grouse
  1.5 oz Casa Mariol Vermut Negra
  1 T lemon juice
  1 dash homemade kümmel
  1 dash Angostura bitters

Shake well (30 seconds), strain, and serve. — This cocktail, resembling almost a punch in its attentive balance, appears first in the Savoy Cocktail Book with Irish rather than Scotch whisky, and is then picked up for JM 1933 with a slight change. I have to admit, I think Jack improved this recipe by the substitution of Scotch, though I don’t know if John Wood approved it.

 

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.

 

178. Hurricane Cocktail

My interpretation:
  0.5 oz Big Gin
  0.5 oz Hochstadters Rye
  0.25 oz Hiram Walker Crème de Menthe
  2 T lemon juice

 Shake well (20 seconds), strain into cocktail glass, serve. — This bracing cocktail is taken from the Savoy Cocktail Book (1930). The now more popular, tropical-style drink by the same name, invented only much later in the 1940s in New Orleans, is clearly unrelated, except for the large amount of juice.
 

173. Homestead Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1.25 oz Big Gin
  0.75 oz Alessio Vermouth Chinato
  1 orange slice (for shaker)
  
Shake wet and dry ingredients with ice, garnish with fresh half slice of orange. — This Martinez riff recipe seems to appear first in Straub and from thence to JM 1916. It also appears in the Savoy Cocktail Book of 1930, where this interesting note is given:

We may therefore postulate that it has a common source prior to Straub. I add a fresh orange slice garnish to distinguish the drink visually from the traditional Martini, etc., and to indicate that a slice was used in the shaking.

171. Hoffman House Cocktail

 My interpretation:
  1 oz Aviation American Gin
  1 oz Dolin Dry
  2 dashes Regan’s Orange Bitters
  
Shake 30 seconds, strain into cocktail glass. Twist lemon over glass, garnish, and serve. — This recipe from the famed Hoffman House bar appears previously in the Savoy Cocktail Book (1930) but in no prior JM edition. The Savoy specification of Plymouth gin is omitted in favor of a generic denomination. The Waldorf-Astoria Bar Book adds this note:

I have used a softer American in view of the apparently original call for Plymouth: