2 oz Lustau Amontillado Los Arcos
2 dashes Fee Brothers Cardamom Bitters
1 dash Luxardo maraschino
Stir with ice, strain into cocktail glass, squeeze lemon peel, garnish with cherry (and lemon). — Obviously I have departed from Jack’s recipe on the supposition that a Sherry Cocktail ought properly to have sherry, not port. Port would have improved this cocktail (as would a superior bitters). After several attempts, I settled on Port and Angostura bitters (Dr. Elmegirab would be good), though I thought the Bristol Cream Sherry was a good runner up. Something sweet of that kind must have been used originally.
Clearly, this is a very old recipe, as the name, ingredients, and characteristic wording suggest (directions such as “stir up with a spoon” are found mostly in books predating Boothby). It already appears in JM1908. What is of interest here is when, precisely, the recipe was altered by Jack Grohusko. A cursory investigation of the Manuals reveals the answer to be 1910 (the Second Edition), when suddenly “port wine” appears. Was there a sherry shortage? Or did customers think the “sherry wine” of the earlier versions made it too sour or insipid? Straub, at any rate, retains the use of sherry in 1913, and substitutes orange bitters for the maraschino.
No comments:
Post a Comment