377. White Rat Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1.5 oz Copper & Kings Absinthe Blanche
  0.5 oz Hiram Walker Anisette

 Fill mixing-glass with cracked ice, shake well (about 30 seconds), strain into cocktail glass, serve. — This glowing anise Duo first appears in JM 1908 with (strangely mangled) Ojen or white absinthe and Anise topped with soda, making in effect a non-bittered Ojen cocktail:

Perhaps following Straub 1913/1914, who is known for simplifying, leaving out information, or otherwise altering Grohusko’s recipes (cf. Brooklyn Cocktail, infamously), JM1916 drops the carbonic or soda as well as the specification of white absinthe. The effect of these two ingredients by themselves resembles that of a sweeter Ojen Spanish absinthe. The simplified recipe finds its way into later books such as Judge Jr.’s Noble Experiments (1930).

376. White Lion Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1 oz Bacardí Blanc
  1 oz lemon juice
  3 dashes Angostura bitters
  3 dashes Jack Rudy grenadine (in lieu of raspberry syrup)
  
 Fill mixing-glass with ice, shake well, strain into cocktail glass, serve. — This “red” version of the venerable pink-hued “Daiquiri Rose” (recently, paler-hued variants have appeared), appears in Harry Johnson’ manual, where it has powdered sugar, both raspberry and curaçao, and gives the option of lemon or lime juice. In early editions, the drink is built as a Fix, in a glass full of fine ice and garnished with seasonal fruit and a straw; later it morphs into a strained Sour; both have only 2-3 dashes of citrus. Johnson’s strained recipe is also echoed in the earlier Grohusko manuals JM1908, 1910, and 1912, which all call for pulverized sugar, half lime or lemon, curaçao, raspberry, and straining into a stemmed glass. Probably following Straub 1913/1914, JM1916 introduces the newer simplified recipe presented here, dropping the lime option and the curaçao and approaching more nearly the sort of Rum Rose we know today.

375. White Elephant Cocktail

My interpretation:

  1.25 oz Tinkerman’s Sweet Spice Gin

  1 oz Cocchi Vermouth di Torino

  1 egg white

Fill mixing-glass with chipped or broken ice, shake well (about 30 seconds), strain into cocktail glass, serve. — This creamy Sweet Martini + Egg White first appears in Straub 1913 in a 2:1 ratio. When it was taken into JM1916, it was weakened slightly to 3:2. The 2:1 ratio also appears in The Old Waldorf Bar Days (1931), doubtless a belated record of the original source.

371. Webster Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1 oz Plymouth Gin
  0.5 oz Martini & Rossi Extra Dry
  0.25 oz Rothman & Winter Orchard Apricot
  0.25 oz fresh lime juice

Shake well (30 seconds suffices to achieve good consistency, strain into cocktail glass, serve. —  The first thing to notice about this delicious Martini riff augmented by discreet portions of Apricot and lime, is that the math is all wrong. Jack may have meant percentages of 2 oz (a grown man’s drink), making this a larger drink than usual (i.e., 2.6 oz + dilution). However, I think it quite instructive to refer to the Savoy Cocktail Book (1930) here, the putative source, which calls for the proportion outlined above in my interpretation. This leads us to conclude that there is here a typo in the second line, and that apricot brandy should read 20%, not 50%. Of course, in type the characters are approximately mirrored along a horizontal axis. That would put us at 2 oz plus about 1 tsp., well within cocktail glass capacity of the time after dilution.

365. Waldorf Special Cocktail.

 My interpretation:
  2 oz Rothman & Winter Orchard Apricot
  1 T lime juice

Shake well (30 seconds), strain into cocktail glass, serve. — This recipe, if it may be called that (better, an apricot liqueur treatment neatly balanced with a little lime), which makes a nice post-prandial, is first described in Straub 1913 (specifying “apricotine”) before appearing in JM 1916. It does not appear in the Old Waldorf Bar Days book—which doesn’t mean, of course, that it was not served or invented there. When combined with a dry martini, it becomes a Webster (q.v.)

359. Van Wyck Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1 oz Castle & Key London dry gin
  1 oz Plymouth Sloe Gin
  2 dashes Regan’s Orange Bitters

Shake well with ice, strain into cocktail glass, serve. — This frothy yin-yang Duo of strong and syrupy hanging in dubious balance, strapped together with a cord of faint but deep orange bitters, first appears in Straub 1913 with “dry gin.” In JM 1916 it becomes the second of three “Vans” in the cocktail section of Grohusko’s, also specifying dry gin. This agreement suggests the Waldorf Bar as the common source, which is tentatively confirmed by reference to the Old Waldorf Bar Book (1931), where the drink appears with Old Tom gin and sloe gin in a 2:1 ratio, with the orange bitters, stirred, with “fruit in glass.” It was apparently to be drunk in the Van Wyck tunnel.

342. Tango Cocktail

My interpretation:

  1.25 oz Castle & Key Gin

  0.75 oz Vermut Lustau

  1/2 tsp Copper & Kings brandy

Fill shaker with ice, shake about 40 strokes, serve. — This recipe comes from Straub 1914 (not in 1913 ed.) where the brandy is specified to be Apricot Brandy. That specifier is unapologetically omitted in JM1916. McElhone in 1927 uses the name Tango for a combination of Plymouth gin, sweet vermouth, orange juice, and curaçao, finished with an orange twist. The Savoy (1930) follows suit, omitting the twist. The Old Waldorf Bar Days (1931) has two Tangos: 1 is a dry martini with egg white, shaken; 2 calls for dry and sweet vermouth, rum, gin, and orange juice frappé, essentially a variant on the McElhone recipe.

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.
 

323. Sidecar Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1 oz Copper & Kings brandy
  1 oz Cointreau
  3/4 T lime juice

In shaker with ice, add ingredients including half lime, shake well (30 seconds), strain into cocktail glass, serve. — This recipe from McElhone’s Barflies & Cocktails (1927) proved so popular, it had to be included in JM1933. There the recipe calls for equal thirds of cointreau (triple sec), cognac, and lemon juice, and is attributed to MacGarry of Buck’s Club, London. The Savoy (1930) Sidecar has twice the brandy but still lemon.
 

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:
 

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.

300. Robert Burns Cocktail

My intepretation:
  1.5 oz The Famous Grouse blended Scotch whisky
  0.5 oz Noilly Prat Rouge
  1 dash St. George Absinthe Verte

Fill mixing-glass with broken ice, shake well (about 30 seconds), strain into cocktail glass, serve. — This classic Scotch cocktail goes heavy on the base, surprisingly similar to the modern version. In 1908, Jack was a little confused on the Scotch trio of recipes which appear in close proximity here. The first, the Robert Burns, was to be made with equal portions of Scotch whisky and French (Chappaz) vermouth, with 3 dashes of absinthe. This was only amended in JM1916, after Straub’s Manual appeared and according to that recipe, which also rightly introduced the option of Scotch (Robert Burns was himself Scotch, so it makes sense). The Irish option remained, perhaps due to the popular taste for that whisky among those of Irish descent living New York at the time. The drink ought to be stirred, as specified in the earlier, pre-Straub editions of Jack’s Manual.

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.
  

287. Princess Mary Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1.5 oz Plymouth Gin
  1.25 oz Hiram Walker Crème de Cacao (white)
  0.25 oz light cream

Fill shaker with ice, shake 25-30 seconds, strain into cocktail glass, serve. — If you think this sounds like an Alexander, wel, it is—at least, what is now thought of as an Alexander. In 1908, Jack Grohusko had an Alexander of a far different stripe: 2:1 rye and Benedictine, down, on a rock, with an orange twist; somewhat similar to the Colonel. This is found in JM and Straub until 1933. In Harry of Ciro’s ABCs of Mixing Cocktails (1923), the recipe is found by this description, along with its claim by the author of the book: it was invented by Harry McElhone in 1922 for the marriage of HRH Princess

Mary to Lord Lascelles; Harry’s Alexander has brandy, not gin—thus a Brandy Alexander. Barflies & Cocktails (1927), which also has the Princess Mary (along with repeated details on its creation), likewise gives the Alexander as brandy, cacao, and cream. The Old Waldorf Bar Days (1931) gives it with gin, cacao, and cream—identical to the Princess Mary, but that cocktail by McElhone is not present to confuse. In brief, while the Alexander appears in a variety of forms, the Princess Mary appears only with cream, cacao, and gin, usually in equal parts. It appears that the inclusion of the creamy Alexander occurs only in 1933 (along with addition of Alexander’s Sister) and without noting similarity to the Princess Mary). Note: I have used Plymouth Gin here, though the style is not specified in the recipe.
 

278. Pink Lady Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1 oz Aria American Dry Gin
  1 oz Laird’s Blended Applejack
  2 tsp Jack Rudy Grenadine / 1 tsp Rose’s Grenadine
  1 T fresh lime juice

Fill mixing-glass with ice, shake 30 seconds, strain into cocktail glass, serve. — This beguiling ride with a pretty paint job, Liquor in the front seat, and a Sour in the back, is first found in Straub 1913 and borrowed for JM1916. Barflies & Cocktails (1927) gives the recipe as brandy, gin, grenadine, and egg white (no lime juice). The Savoy (1930) version consists simply of gin, grenadine, and egg white without lime, applejack, or brandy. In all cases, as usual, the choice of grenadine, and its quantity, will require adjustment in order to obtain the proper color. In any event, you will want a color somewhere between the two examples below, with a flavor more approximating the first:

272. Pheasant Cocktail

My interpretation:

  1 oz Rémy Martin VSOP

  1 oz Hayman’s Old Tom Gin

In mixing-glass half-full of broken ice shake 20–30 seconds, strain into cocktail glass, serve. — My interpretation of the recipe here is admittedly incorrect. Though no type of gin is specified in 1933, the earlier editions all indicate some form of dry (or Gordon’s) gin. My error came from the (usually correct) assumption that an unspecified “gin” in JM 1933 means something not “dry,” i.e., Old Tom, or occasionally, Holland Gin. Nevertheless, the recipe works well this way, and is a bit softer and more blended in effect. The original formulation is more bracing. We might call this variant the Tom Pheasant. The Pheasant Cocktail first appears in JM1908 and is picked up by Straub in 1913. Gordon dry is still indicated in JM 1916, but the last edition introduces the generic switch for unknown reasons.

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.

262. Panama Cocktail

My interpretation:
  0.75 oz Copper & Kings Brandy
  0.75 oz Hiram Walker Creme de cacao
  0.33 oz light cream

Shake well (25 seconds), strain into chilled cocktail glass, serve. — This drink, which amounts to a Brandy Alexander (as it is today commonly named), appears in the Savoy Cocktail Book in equal parts. Here the cream is reduced to accent the alcohol and bring the parts in better alignment. Adjustments of the recipe in books of the 30s and 40s tended to increased the brandy to about 3 parts to 1 part each of cream and cacao.

257. Orange Blossom Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1 oz fresh orange juice
  1 oz Aria American Dry Gin

Fill mixing-glass half-full of cracked ice, shake well (20 seconds), strain into cocktail glass, serve. — This citrusy brunchtime libation does not enter the JM repertoire until 1933, and not with Straub’s (1913/1914) ratio of 1 jigger of each, which I have used here, but with that found in the 1927 Barflies & Cocktails, viz., the juice of one orange (= about 2 oz or 4 T) and 1 glass (= 2 oz) of Gordon (dry) gin. The proportions are thus equal, but a larger drink is produced. This makes it the same as the Harvester. JM 1933 does not clarify what do with the larger drink, but B&C 1927 specifies the use of a small wineglass, which I take to mean what JM would call a claret glass, holding about 6 oz at the rim. The drink thus produced, being about 5 oz, fits comfortably. The Savoy Cocktail Book allows for either presentation, simply stating 1/2 and 1/2, but by specifying a cocktail glass, suggests the smaller drink of Straub. In the Old Waldorf Bar Book (1931), with instruction to frappé, it is called the Orange Blossom No. 2, the No. 1 having Tom Gin and sweet vermouth. Replacing half the orange juice with raspberry syrup produces the Leonora (Blossom). Other similar drinks include the Hawaiian (reducing OJ and adding curaçao), the Bronx (adding sweet and dry vermouths), and the Bronx Dry (adding dry vermouth).