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).

341. Swan Cocktail

My interpretation:
  2 oz Copper & Kings white absinthe
  1 oz fresh orange juice

Fill mixing-glass with broken ice, shake 20 seconds, strain into cocktail glass, serve. — This breakfast bracer (or anytime bracer) duo first appears in JM1912. The next year, Straub listed a recipe by the same name but dissimilar in every other way. It is a dry martini with bitters and a dash of lime. The key here is that this other recipe is named for the brand name of Swan gin, a notable brand of genever from Schiedam, Netherlands. That recipe derives from the earlier Old Waldorf manual, which was published later in 1931 under the title the Old Waldorf Bar Days, which adds absinthe as well. Long story short, the Grohusko recipe is unique and unrelated, lending dignity to the name as descriptive of the drink itself, reflecting the beauty and elegance of that noble bird. The other simply plays upon a popular name for genever.

254. Opal Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1 oz Copper & King’s Blanche Absinthe
  1 oz Casa Mariol Vermut

Fill mixing-glass half-full of ice, shake, strain into cocktail glass, serve. — This bracing recipe first appears in JM 1912. A recipe by the same name in Straub 1913/1914 is a stirred dry Martini with a dash of absinthe on top. This suggests a common source imperfectly reproduced in one or either of the books. Straub is corroborated by reference to the 1931 Old Waldorf Bar Book, which also inserts 1 dash of Orange Bitters in the dry Martini. A different cocktail by the same name in The Savoy Cocktail Book (1930) is a large-format cocktail for 6 people consisting of gin, orange juice, and curaçao, etc.
 

250. Ojen Cocktail (American Style)

My Interpretation:
  0.5 oz Hiram Walker Anisette
  0.5 oz Copper & Kings White Absinthe
  6 dashes Peychaud’s bitters
  
Fill mixing-glass with cracked ice; stir with a dash (about 1/2 oz) of carbonated water, strain, serve. — This is the recipe found in the third Jack’s Manual (1912) and continues, after Straub’s Spanish recipe, with the epithet “American style.” The preparation is less finnicky than the Spanish, and the flavor of the absinthe is much improved by the addition of Peychaud’s.

243. Narragansett Cocktail

This recipe with a toponymic name, as if the Rhode Island yacht-clubbers’ take on a Manhattan, appears in a 2:1 ratio in Straub 1913 (where absinthe is used instead of anisette), which translates, as usual, to a slightly less tipsy 3:2 ratio when borrowed by JM in 1916. The vermouth, anisette, and olive recall the Montana Club listed a few entries above on the same page, but the effect with sweet vermouth and rye is decidedly different. Both authors likely got the recipe from the old Waldorf manual, which finds expression in the Old Waldorf Bar Days (1931). There we see first the important note “No Bitters.” This was to prevent the bartender from automatically adding the typical bitters to a drink which had every sign of being a cocktail, which everyone knew meant liquor, sweetener, bitters, and dilution. This delves back into the pre-cocktail Sling. Here the anisette (is this an indication that JM is more faithful to the original?) serves the purpose of bitters, though. Incidentally, the Old Waldorf also specifies straining the drink onto the olive, not dropping the latter in after. I include the Straub version with absinthe for comparison:

142. Fourth Degree Cocktail

My interpretation:
  0.75 oz Copper & King’s Absinthe Blanche
  0.75 oz Martini & Rossi Extra Dry
  0.75 oz Cocchi Vermouth di Torino

Shake with ice about 30 seconds, double strain into cocktail glass, serve. — This recipe comes to JM 1916 from Straub 1913. The Savoy Cocktail Book recipe has equal parts dry vermouth, sweet vermouth, and gin, with only 2 dashes of absinthe. This seems more accessible. Nevertheless, the present recipe is itself more accessible than the Duchess above, the only difference being the specified absinthe. In the Duchess, I used St. George Absinthe Verte. Here, since it called for white, I used the Copper & King’s absinthe alembic blanche, which is noticeably smoother and harmonizes better with the vermouths.