30. Belmont Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1.25 oz Rose’s Grenadine
  1.75 oz Uncle Val’s Restorative Gin
  1 tsp heavy cream
  
Shake well (20 seconds) with cracked ice, double strain, serve. Notes: A good grenadine is a necessity for this dessert drink. Rose’s should not be the star of the show. Try Liber & Co. or Jack Rudy’s version. Otherwise, a modern palate might prefer a ratio of 1:2 grenadine to gin.

 

29. Beauty Spot Cocktail

My interpretation:
  0.25 oz fresh orange juice
  0.75 oz Yzaguirre Rojo
  0.75 oz  Martini & Rossi Extra Dry
  1.5 oz Hawthorn’s London Dry Gin
  1 dash Rose’s Grenadine

Shake with ice, strain, serve. If desired, reserve grenadine till end and drop the dash through the top, creating a “spot” (this works better when the recipe with eggwhite is used).

 

28. Beauty Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1.5 oz Hawthorn’s London Dry Gin
  0.75 oz Martini & Rossi Extra Dry Vermouth
  0.75 oz Yzaguirre Rojo Sweet Vermouth
  1 eggwhite
  1 dash Grande Absente absinthe
  1 barspoon sugar syrup 

Shake ingredients over cracked ice, finely strain, serve.

 

27. Beals Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1.5 oz The Famous Grouse Blended Scotch
  0.75 oz Martini & Rossi Extra Dry
  0.75 oz Martini & Rossi Rosso

Shake with ice, strain, serve in whisky glass. A “perfect” version of the Beadlestone served down.

 

26. Beadlestone Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1.5 oz The Famous Grouse
  1.5 oz Martini & Rossi Extra Dry Vermouth

Shake with ice, strain into cocktail glass. Garnish with lemon if desired.
 

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.

24. Barry Cocktail

This is an interesting entry that presents a few items for consideration. Firstly, be amused by the misattribution ’Frisco in the 1908 Edition:
 

Secondly, the method and description have an air of being borrowed from another source. This is not Jack’s natural voice.
 
My interpretation:
  4 dashes Angostura bitters
  1.5 oz Hawthorn’s London Dry Gin
  1.5 oz Martini & Rossi Rosso Sweet Vermouth
  5 drops (about 1 barspoon) Hiram Walker White Crème de Menthe 

In small mixing-glass with one large piece of ice stir mixture well (20 seconds), strain into small bar glass (cordial or lowball) and serve with ice water (separate glass). Squeeze lemon peel or twist lemon rind over drink and use for garnish. — A cooling bracer (more bracing if you use overproof / Plymouth gin) that would be just the thing to sip in a makeshift “Barbary Coast” booze-tent after a tiring day of hauling charred timbers and clearing blackened bricks from the remains of your recently burnt-down house in the City by the Bay (Jack’s First Edition came out a couple years after the Great Earthquake and Fire). And it comes with built-in mouthwash.

23. Barbary Coast Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1.25 oz Uncle Val’s Restorative Gin
  1.25 oz The Famous Grouse Blended Scotch
  0.5 oz crème de cacao
  1 T heavy cream

Shake well with cracked ice, strain into highball glass with large ice cube or garnish with nutmeg. 
 

22. Baracca’s Cocktail

My interpretation:
  0.75 oz Fernet Branca (US)
  2.25 oz Martini & Rossi Rosso Sweet Vermouth

Fill mixing-glass with ice, stir mixture, strain, and serve. Garnish with lemon rind. As an aperitif, serve in lowball or small goblet without garnish. This drink is mentioned by David Wondrich as one of those which were improvised when the familiar Italian ingredients were lacking. Technically the drink name should have an apostrophe, unless it means more than one of the family. The restaurant belonged to a Victor Baracca.

 

21. Bamboo Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1.5 oz Lustau Amontillado
  0.75 oz Dolin Blanc
  0.75 oz Martini & Rossi Extra Dry
 1 dash Regan’s Orange Bitters
  
Fill mixing-glass half full (or empty) with ice, stir mixture, strain, serve. Garnish with lemon. I like the way the mixed dry-blanc vermouth works in this one. Cheers!
 

20. Ballantine Cocktail

My interpretation
  1 dash Grande Absente absinthe
  1 oz Martini & Rossi Extra Dry Vermouth
  0.25 oz Yzaguirre Blanco
  1.75 oz Hawthorn’s London Dry Gin

Shake over ice, strain, and serve. I mix my vermouths here the better to bridge the gin and absinthe. I think Dolin Dry would be good. Cynical remark: Martini with absinthe. Cynical remark no. 2: no Ballantine’s Scotch is involved in the creation of this drink. Interestingly, in the 1916 Edition, Jack specifies Gordon Dry gin.
 

19. Bacardi Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1.25 oz Bacardí 8 Años
  0.25 oz Demarara 3 Year
  0.75 oz Casa Mariol Vermut Negro
  0.75 oz Martini & Rossi Extra Dry

Fill mixing glass with broken ice, stir mixture, strain, serve. I wanted to use the Bacardí 8 here but it needed to be balanced a little with some 3 Year Demarara. I much prefer this version of a “Bacardi Cocktail” (what we might call a Bacardi Perfect) as a vehicle for the rum to the usual version with grenadine and lime juice (as e.g. found in Straub 1914).

 

18. Aviation Cocktail

A couple preliminary remarks are due here. Firstly, this is clearly not the Aviation Cocktail that predominates today, but the signature in-flight cocktail featured on a certain airline cocktail menu, which eventually fell out favor. You might sometimes find this cocktail called Aviation #1, which suits me fine. Jack knows of crème Yvette, but not of the Aviation #2. Secondly, note that the math doesn’t quite add up. The proportions are actually in relation to separate jiggers, as clarified in Jacques Straub’s 1914 book:

My interpretation:
  2.25 oz Laird & Co. Applejack
  0.75 oz fresh lime juice
  1 dash Grand Absente absinthe
  6 dashes (2 barspoons) Rose’s Grenadine

Shake well over ice, strain, garnish with lime wedge. The absinthe works here in a way similar to the Monkey Gland, and really takes it a notch above the “Applejack Cocktail (Special)” in a previous post.

 

17. Auto Cocktail

This is the drink also known as the Automobile Cocktail. Being still on the page 42 of the 1933 Edition and therefore lacking the specific vermouth attribution, we continue to apply comparative historic mixology and consult the 1916 Edition:

That’s certainly clearer. Once again, we are informed not only that the Vermouth is French but that the Gin is (Old) Tom. Curiously, most recipes today seem to call for Sweet or Italian Vermouth

My interpretation:
  1.25 oz Vermouth (Casa Mariol Negro or M&R Extra Dry)
  1.25 oz Uncle Val’s Restorative Gin
  0.75 oz The Famous Grouse Blended Scotch Whisky

Shake over ice, strain and serve. Garnish with lemon. Note that I decided to try both, and I have to say it’s close, but I lean toward the Dry. I’d certainly accept either if I were offered it. For a sweeter, more Scotch-heavy variant, see the Butcher (No. 65).

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.
 

15. Armour Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1 dash Regan’s Orange Bitters
  1.5 oz Casa Mariol Vermut Negro
  1.5 oz El Maestro Sierra Oloroso Sherry

Stir over broken ice, strain, serve. Garnish with orange peel. It’s essentially the earlier Adonis Cocktail with slightly different proportions.

14. Ardsley Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1.5 oz homemade Calisaya mixture (using chinchona and gentian liqueurs with a focus on orange and warm spices)
  1.5 Plymouth Sloe Gin. 

Shake (with broken ice), strain, and serve. Garnish with orange peel.

Note: Since Elixir’s Calisaya is not sold here, I created a fair stand-inMy Calisaya mixture was designed to pair with this drink as well as to answer the descriptions given in other sources. In any event, it counterbalances the thick syrupy qualities of the Sloe with some bracing bitterness and complexity. 

13. Apple-Pie Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1.5 oz Bacardí 8
  1.5 oz Casa Mariol Vermut Negro
  4 dashes (one barspoon) Hiram Walker Apricot Brandy
  2 dashes Rose’s Grenadine
  2 barspoons lime (not pictured)

Shake well (on broken ice), strain, serve. It doesn’t taste like apple-pie (you can find lots of recipes that do that these days), and I’m not sure if it was meant to, but the specific brand of apricot liqueur might have something to do with it. A nice Abrikos would improve it, as would a better (i.e., not a last-minute purchase) grenadine, like Liber & Co.—which I used up at a party making Applejack Specials—or Jack Rudy.

 

12. Applejack Cocktail (Special)

My Interpretation:
  2 oz Laird & Co. Applejack
  1 oz Liber & Co. Grenadine
  Juice of 1/2 lime or lemon

Using four barspoons of juice, the lime works better than the lemon. I ended up making several at a party and only had time to snap one before it was grabbed.

11. Applejack Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1 dash Regan’s Orange Bitters
  3 oz Laird’s Applejack 

“Cider brandy” sure sounds a lot better than Applejack, if it weren’t for the name . . . Anyway, a slight variation on the instructions, as usual when peels are involved in the mixture: Stir over cracked ice (with a spoon this time!), strain into glass. Drop in medium-size olive, squeeze lemon peel over drink, discard. Serve drink.

10. Antilles Cocktail

 

My interpretation:
  0.75 oz Yzaguirre Blanco
  0.75 oz Martini & Rossi Extra Dry
  1.25 oz Courvoisier VSOP
  1 dash Noirot Orange-Flower Water

I substitute the Yzaguirre Blanco for the sweet vermouth. Fine ice is achieved with bag and mallet. I also add an orange twist garnish for visual interest to match this gustatorily interesting mixture.

 

9. Anne's Delight

My interpretation:
  1.5 oz Plymouth Sloe Gin
  1.5 oz Depart Brandy VSOP

Instructions followed without variation. It’s a sweet drink. There’s not much else to say. The sloe gin has a nice deep stonefruit flavor but the brandy does not cut it; only the thinning effect of the cracked ice offers balance to the sweetness and mouthfeel. Perhaps best served as a small dessert cocktail.

8. Anderson Cocktail

My interpretation:
  3 oz Hawthorn’s London Dry Gin
  1 oz Casa Mariol Vermut Negro (sweet vermouth)

The curious notice to use a mixing glass is presumably to enable the proper frappéing of the mixture. Perhaps it is an artifact from the original source. In any event, I follow obediently, filling with cracked ice, frappéing, straining, and serving—here in a large glass. I disobey the letter by twisting the peel last and making it a garnish.