231. McHenry Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1 oz Beefeater London Dry Gin
  1 oz Casa Mariol Vermut Negra
  1 dash Fee Brothers Orange Bitters
  1 tsp or bsp Rothman & Winter Apricot liqueur

Fill mixing-glass with ice, stir, strain, serve. — This augmented Martini, previously in JM1916, is found first in Straub 1913, where, as here, the reader is referred to the Martini Cocktail. To begin, therefore, we consult the Martini Cocktail on the previous page:

The only difference there is that Straub calls for stirring the Martini “well.” To this, then, is added 1 tsp of Apricot “brandy” (Hungarian in Straub), meaning, we may safely say, not the clean eau de vie des apricots, but the sweet, fruity, fragrant kind of dram pungent enough to be noticeable at the ratio of 1 tsp to 2 oz of remaining liquids (Straub specifies 1 bsp).

126. Emerald Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1 oz Jameson Caskmates Stout Edition
  1 oz Dolin Rouge
  1 dash Fee Brothers Orange Bitters

Fill mixing-glass with ice, stir, strain into cocktail glass, and serve. — Borrowed from Straub 1913 for JM 1916 without alteration. A Bobbie Burns riff substituting orange bitters for Benedictine.

60. Brown Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1.75 oz Bulleit Rye
  1.25 oz Bombay Sapphire
  1 dash Fee Brothers Orange Bitters

Shake with cracked ice, strain, and serve. — This bracing concotion first came to JM 1916 presumably from Jacques Straub’s 1913 recipe book. It is without sweetening agent, though some may be obtained from the proper Rye, and dilution by shaking with cracked ice provides the desirable consistency and potency. The Waldorf-Astoria Bar Book (1935) remembers it being “ascribed to students of Brown University, an early Rockefeller Center.”

54. Bridal Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1.75 oz Uncle Val’s Restorative
  1.25 oz Yzaguirre Rojo
  1 dash Fee Brothers Orange Bitters
  1 dash Luxardo maraschino

Stir well (20 seconds) with ice, strain. Garnish with twisted orange peel; serve. — A delicious cocktail of the sweet “Martini” type which at this ratio might as easily be served at room-temperature. Straub, from whom Jack presumably acquired this recipe for his 1916 expanded and re-organized manual, specifies Holland maraschino.



 

44. Blackthorne Cocktail

A couple things to note about this recipe. In 1933, the teaspoonful of syrup has been (perhaps?) increased to a plain spoonful. The 1/4 teaspoon of lemon juice was changed in 1916 to the juice of a 1/4 lemon, and that continues in 1933. The original 3 dashes of Angostura bitters (besides the 2 of orange bitters) were reduced to two dashes of unspecified bitters in 1910 and eliminated thereafter.

My interpretation:
  1 teaspoon syrup
  juice of 1/4 lemon (= 1 teaspoon)
  2 dashes Fee Brothers Orange Bitters
  1.5 oz Martini & Rossi Rosso
  1.5 oz Plymouth Sloe Gin

Fill mixing-glass 2/3 full of fine ice (beaten with mallet and bag), stir well (20 seconds), strain, serve. — An old and venerable cocktail. One can’t help wishing the Angostura bitters had been left in; the drink is not quite there without them, though still quite drinkable.

37. Bishop Potter Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1.5 oz St. George Botanivore
  0.75 oz Martini & Rossi Extra Dry
  0.75 oz Martini & Rossi Rosso
  2 dashes Fee Brothers Orange Bitters
  2 dashes Calisaya bitters mixture (homemade)

Stir well (20 seconds) with broken ice, strain, serve. — What the modern person might today call a “perfect” martini with some extra bitters. A variant of this recipe is doubtless represented by the “Bishop Poker” of the Waldorf-Astoria Bar Book (1935) which divides the liquors in thirds and for its bitters uses only one dash of Amer Picon.

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.
 

2. Adonis Cocktail

My interpretation:
  2 dashes Fee Brothers Orange Bitters
  1 oz El Maestro Sierra Oloroso sherry
  2 oz Casa Mariol Vermut negro (sweet vermouth)

Stir over ice and strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with lemon twist. Jack might have intended this to be stirred without ice and built in the glass, but as is often the case, the instructions are unclear, indeed, laconic to the extreme, and historical comparisons must be relied upon.