368. Washington Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1.75 oz Noilly Prat Extra Dry
  0.25 oz Copper & Kings Brandy
  1 dash Pierre Ferrand Dry Curaçao
  1 dash Angostura bitters

Fill mixing-glass with broken ice, stir, strain into cocktail glass, serve. — This light, vermouth-forward aperitif recipe first appears in JM1912 and remains a standard part of the JM repertoire. It later appears from an undetermined source in McElhone’s Barflies & Cocktails (1927) in the ratio 2:1 vermouth to brandy, with 2 dashes of syrup instead of curacao, and 2 dashes of bitters. That recipe is reproduced exactly in
The Savoy Cocktail Book (1930).
 

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.

338. Story Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1 oz Martell Cognac VS
  1 oz Gammel Dansk Bitter Dram

Frappé (shake vigorously 30 seconds with shaker full of crushed ice, or else use two cups full of fine ice, and turn the mixture back and forth between the cups until very chilled), strain into cocktail glass, serve. — Boonekamp bitters are the licorice-forward kind, of which the flagship brand is recognized as Underberg’s. Gammel Dansk, a newer bitter, is more punchy, perhaps, but has some similar qualities. In any event, this post-prandial duo goes back to the first edition, JM1908. It was also picked up by Straub in 1913.

329. Smith Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1 oz Copper & Kings brandy
  1 oz Rothman & Winter apricot liqueur 
  1 tsp Hiram Walker crème de menthe (white)
  1 dash St. George absinthe verte (to finish)

Fill mixing-glass with ice, shake, strain into cocktail glass, add dash absinthe (with atomizer if desired), serve. — This brandy / apricot dessert Duo comes from Straub 1913 and is picked up by Jack Grohusko for JM1916. It is good, if rather indistinguishable from a number of brandy-based dessert drinks.

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.
 

315. Saratoga Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1 oz Copper & Kings Brandy
  0.75 oz Noilly Prat Rouge
  0.25 oz Rittenhouse BiB
  2 barspoons pineapple syrup
  2 dashes Angostura bitters

Fill mixing-glass with cracked ice, stir, strain into cocktail glass, serve. — This pineapple-tinged Brandy-Vermouth cocktail—no relation to the Saratoga Cooler as found in Harry Johnson—with an added slug of Rye, betrays the great care and consideration that went into its alteration, and the effect is admirable. This late-19th century favorite appears, e.g., in the Hoffman House Bartender’s Guide (1905) with maraschino, strawberries, and champagne, but Jack Grohusko includes his own pared-down, more historic version from the outset in 1908 and continues unchanged. The drink by this name in Straub is 2 oz of brandy with pineapple syrup, maraschino, and orange bitters—this is the modern version; but Grohusko does not apparently feel the need to conform to new ideas, with the exception of pineapple syrup (much as serious coffee-houses usually, reluctantly, offer some sort of analog to a Starbucks “caramel macchiato”). Dominique Migliore’s 1925 L’Art du Shaker is more similar to Grohusko but forgoing the novel pineapple: brandy and sweet vermouth with Angostura, curaçao, and absinthe. McElhone, in Barflies & Cocktails (1927) restores to Straub’s version of the newer recipe the missing two strawberries and a top-up of champagne as the turn-of-the-century Hoffman House version. The pineapple in the Savoy Cocktail Book (1930) is a slice rather than syrup, and the champagne top-up is downgraded to seltzer.

 

310. Sabbath Cocktail

My interpretation:

  1 oz Rémy Martin VSOP

  1 oz Offley Tawny Port

  1 oz black coffee (Portland Brew / Summit Roasting)

  1/2 tsp sugar

Shake all ingredients with ice 20 seconds, strain out ice, shake a further 15 seconds, strain into claret (small wine) glass, serve. — This large format caffeinated flip first appears in Straub 1913 (spelled “Sabath”) from whence it makes its way into JM1916. It resembles an attempt at what the Coffee Cocktail ought to have been. In other books, like the Old Waldorf Bar Days (1931) it is called a Sabbath Calm. But Jack Grohusko already had a Sabbath Morning Calm going back to 1908, consisting of gin and eggwhite shaken and strained. That was relegated to the miscellaneous section in 1916; . The Old Waldorf recipe calls, properly, for a full pony of coffee rather than a half, but also adds a quantity of cream, which is unnecessary here.

 

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.
  

282. Polo Farm Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1.25 oz Aria American Dry Gin
  0.75 oz Noilly Prat Dry Vermouth
  1 barspoon Copper & Kings Brandy

Fill mixing glass with ice, stir, strain into chilled, brandy-rinsed cocktail glass, serve. — This recipe, a stiff dry Martini with a quiet brandy tinge, only appears previously in Straub, from which it is apparently borrowed for JM 1916.
 

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.

253. Olympic Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1 oz Copper & King’s Brandy
  1 oz Pierre Ferrand Dry Curaçao
  2 T (1 oz) fresh orange juice

Fill mixing-glass half full of cracked ice. Shake well (20 seconds), strain into cocktail glass. — This Brandy-based brunch tipple, a sort of punch or blossom, is a late addition to Jack’s repertoire, first found in Barflies & Cocktails (1927) in a ratio of equal thirds, where it is attributed to Hoffman House alumn Frank Meier who ran the bar at the Ritz, Paris. Thus it is probably named for the Summer Olympic Games held in Paris in 1924. The equal proportion recipe also shows up in The Savoy Cocktail Book (1930). It is probable that the same recipe is meant here, with the whole orange yielding about 1 oz of juice.
 

251. Old Fashioned Cocktail

The recipe speaks for itself. 100% liquor suggests 2 oz, though this may be adjusted according to the glass (rather adjust the glass and ice than the liquor, though!). The 1908 garnish is a lemon twist. Generally the instructions continue unchanged, even being imitated by Straub in 1913/1914. Barflies & Cocktails (1927) still shows the later popularity of the squeezed lemon peel, but specifies caster (granulated) sugar in place of cut loaf sugar. Either will do. What won’t do is a syrup instead of sugar. The mixing of the sugar and water in the glass is one defining characteristic of the Old Fashion(ed). The curiosity here is the inclusion of Curaçao, which is unknown elsewhere, neither in Strau, nor in Harry’s book, nor in the Old Waldorf book, the latter of which gives an interesting anecdote (besides specifying a small spoon, like the Junkins):

 Thus the dash of Curaçao must be considered unique to Jack Grohusko, perhaps suggested from an earlier old-fashioned or otherwise “fancy” or “improved” preparation of liquor, for which Curaçao and Maraschino were so often called on to play the augmenting role. Nevertheless, a change in the garnish is not noted until 1933, after Prohibition, when we are suddenly met with the fanciful orange-lemon-cherry garnish. In 1931, however, the Savoy Cocktail Book specifies in addition to the lemon twist a slice of orange. This fits happily with Jack’s unique use of curaçao alongside bitters. The orange-lemon-cherry garnish, and the drink overall, is prophetic of the direction it would take by the middle of the century.

 I include pictures of the four versions mentioned specifically, though obviously others are intimated (e.g., Scotch, Tom gin, Irish whisky, apple brandy).

244. Netherland Cocktail

Netherland, not “-lands.” This recipe, which Jack may have gotten from Straub 1913/1914 (both require “good brandy”), is claimed by the Old Waldorf Bar Book to be named for, and derived from, the (New) Netherland Hotel (1893–1927), a Waldorf-Astor property. I suppose they should know, though the orangey-ness of the drink suggests at least a passing familiarity with the “old” Netherland and the importance of that fruit and color to its history (not to mention Curaçao then belonging to Dutch Antilles).
 

242. Nana Cocktail

This indulgent postprandial brandy service, specially designed for those who think brandy isn’t creamy or sweet enough on its own, first appears in Straub 1913 and is borrowed for JM1916 without change.
 

241. Morning Cocktail

The Morning Cocktail is an old standard shared by several cocktail manuals, always involving brandy and sweet vermouth augmented by dashes of various ingredients and served with a lemon twist. The name recalls the origin of the cocktail as a genteel morning pick-me-up. This version in JM1933 goes back to the first edition in 1908, showing by its lack of change the perfection of this early form and the regard for it among genteel morning-tide tipplers. Barflies and Cocktails (1927) specifies orange bitters for the generic bitters given here (I used Fee Brothers Cardamom/Boker’s Style this time), and adds a cherry in the glass along with the twist, which variation is reproduced also in the Savoy Cocktail Book (1930). JM omits the cherry.
 

240. Montana Club Cocktail

This dry, brandy-based cocktail first appears in JM 1908 and continues pretty much without change to the end. In 1908, he calls for a large bar glass half full of ice. This peculiar instruction may indicate a borrowing. Also specified there is “California Brandy.” That is, rather than French brandy (cognac). A similar cocktail in Straub called simply the “Montana Cocktail” adds 2 dashes of Angostura bitters and 2 dashes of port, specifies shaking, and leaves out the olive; still, the brandy + dry vermouth + anisette combination is enough to relate it, whereas the recipe of the same name in the 1927 Barflies & Cocktails book shares only the french vermouth and anisette, with Sloe Gin as the base, to which orange bitters are added, and a squeeze of lemon peel as a bonus. If one were charitable, one might be tempted to see the sloe gin as a good guess for the brandy + port. Another recipe found in the Old Waldorf Bar Book, a later iteration of the earlier source of many New York recipe collections, serves as an elucidator: Simply equal portions of Brandy, French Vermouth, and Port Wine, stirred. It is there called “a compliment to the field of operations of many early patrons of the Bar.” Obviously the recipes are related, though an explanation for the disparity between anisette and port is still wanting.

235. Metropolitan Cocktail (Southern Style)

My interpretation:
  0.75 oz Casa Mariol Vermut Negra
  1.25 oz Western Grace Brandy
  1 dash Regan’s Orange Bitters

Fill mixing-glass with ice, stir, strain into cocktail glass, serve. — This putative variant of the last drink (No. 235) first appears in the laconic Straub 1913 without instructions (simply “serve”), but with the usual 2:1 ratio favored by Straub and which was typically altered to 3:2 by Grohusko. It is for all intents and purposes a Brandy Manhattan.
 

234. Metropolitan Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1.5 oz Noilly Prat Extra Dry Vermouth
  1.5 oz Western Grace Brandy

Fill mixing-glass 1/2 full with fine ice, shake, strain into cocktail glass, serve. — This recipe, a dry brandy manhattan, if we might call it that, was added to the JM repertoire in 1912. It is hard to choose the best dry vermouth to go with brandy. Noilly Prat seems to work better than Dolin Dry does. Straub 1913 has it with additional 2 dashes of Angostura bitters. In the Old Waldorf Bar Days, this recipe is known as Metropole and adds Orange and Peychaud’s Bitters as well as a cherry. It is there ascribed to the hotel of that name.
 

 

220. Mallory Cocktail

My interpretation:
  0.75 oz Western Grace Spanish Brandy
  0.75 oz Rothman & Winter Apricot Liqueur
  0.66 oz Hiram Walker Creme de Menthe (white)
  1 dash St. George Absinthe Verte

Shake with ice, strain into cocktail glass, serve. — This dessert Trio first appears in Straub 1913 (who seems to harbor a distinct fondness for such toothsome postprandials) and is taken from thence into JM1916 with Jack’s usual tweak of the perfect thirds recipe to reduce slightly the crème de menthe, which might otherwise overpower the apricot and dash of absinthe.