383. Zaza Cocktail

 My interpretation:
  1 oz Tinkerman’s Sweet Spice Gin
  1 oz Dubonnet Rouge

Fill mixing-glass with ice, stir, strain into cocktail glass, serve. — Named after the play which debuted in 1901, this Martiniesque Duo first appears in the earliest Jack’s Manuals dating back to 1908 and remained part of the repertoire until the last. Straub adds 1 dash of Angostura bitters with no note whether to stir or shake, McElhone, in Barflies & Cocktails (1927) adds pepsin (pepson) bitters and attributes the recipe to a certain F. Newman of Paris, Craddock in The Savoy Cocktail Book (1930) has no bitters but, like McElhone, calls for shaking it, and The Old Waldorf Bar Days (1931), based on an earlier source, has a softer 1:2 ratio of Old Tom gin and Dubonnet stirred with orange bitters stirred. The effect is simple and elegant.

358. Van Lee Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1 oz Castle & Key London dry gin
  0.75 oz Dubonnet Rouge
  0.25 oz The Famous Grouse scotch whisky

Fill mixing-glass with broken ice, stir, strain into a cocktail glass, serve. — This variant on an Apéritif Cocktail (be it Byrrh, Saint Raphael, or Dubonnet), spiced up with a notion of Scotch whisky, first appears in JM1910 with Byrrh instead of Dubonnet, as usual in the earlier books. It is not picked up by Straub, and appears to be named for one of the local fixtures at Jack’s bar.

334. Spaulding Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1.25 oz Beefeater Gin
  0.75 Dubonnet Rouge
  1 tsp The Famous Grouse blended Scotch

Fill shaker with fine ice, shake well (30 seconds), strain into cocktail glass, serve. — This sweet martini-riff with a tinge of smoky scotch first appears in Straub 1913 and is borrowed in JM1916.
 

327. Slome Cocktail

My interpretation:
  0.75 oz Old Forester Signature / 100 pf
  0.75 oz Martell VS
  0.66 oz Dubonnet Rouge

Fill shaker half-full with fine ice, frappé / shake vigorously 20 seconds, strain into cocktail glass, serve. — This fine Bourbon-Brandy Manhattan riff (with Dubonnet doing double-duty for vermouth and bitters) first surfaces in Straub 1913. The formula yields a nice foam that lingers for a couple minutes if undisturbed, or pleasantly tickles the lip of the anxious imbiber. One wonders if the name is a corruption of Salome, and if it was thus another cocktail in commemoration of that erstwhile famous play / operetta (though nothing in the recipe suggests the exoticism met by the other recipe with its celery leaves).
 

317. Scheuer Cocktail

 My interpretation:
  1 oz Vermut Lustau
  1 oz Dubonnet Rouge

Fill mixing-glass with cracked ice, stir, strain into cocktail glass, serve. — This simple, light, vermouthy Duo appetizer goes back to JM1908 and continues unchanged. In 1913, Straub includes the recipe (perhaps they both may be traced to the same source) with the probably wise addition of 1 dash Angostura Bitters, but the dash of Bitters is not incorporated by Grohusko in 1916 or 1933.

303. Robinson Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1 oz Castle & Key Dry Gin
  0.75 oz Dubonnet Rouge
  0.25 oz fresh orange juice

Fill mixing-glass half-full with cracked ice, shake, strain into cocktail glass, serve. — This recipe, somewhere between a Bronx and a Martini, with Dubonnet for vermouth and orange juice for orange bitters, dates back to the original JM 1908. The mixture ends up somewhat similar to the newer Marble Hill, named for a district in New York but has a much better claim historically.

293. Raphael Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1 oz Dubonnet (or Saint-Raphaël) aperitif
  0.75 oz Martini & Rossi Extra Dry
  0.25 oz Plymouth Gin

Fill mixing-glass with broken ice, stir, strain into cocktail glass, serve. — This Dubonnet treatment of the Saint-Raphaël aperitif resembles the Dubonnet cocktail proper. It first appears with the angelic elixir in JM 1910, substituting Dubonnet in 1916; the rest of the recipe remaining unchanged through 1933. A Raphael Cocktail does not appear in the usual cocktail books of the period; it may have come directly from the producer.

 

266. Parisian Cocktail

 

My interpretation:
 2 oz Dubonnet Rouge
 1 T lime juice

Stir with ice, strain into cocktail glass, and serve. — This recipe, occurring in two variants, is to be distinguished from that of the same name in Barflies & Cocktails (1927) and The Savoy Cocktail Book (1930), which call for equal parts gin, dry vermouth, and cassis (blackcurrant liqueur). Regarding our present recipe, the information in JM 1933 is somewhat scant by comparison with the earlier instances, which include seltzer. The change is to be traced to Straub 1913/1914, which omits the seltzer and ice. Byrrh is retained until 1916, when it is replaced with Dubonnet. I therefore add the version of JM 1908, probably imagined as a sort of lowball, in view of the ice:

My interpretation:
 2 oz Byrrh
 1 T lime juice

Build in highball glass (to accommodate seltzer), stir, add two pieces of ice, stir, top off with seltzer, serve. Below I present first the 1933 recipe served “up” and then two interpretations of the earlier recipe with seltzer.

Jack’s Manual 1916, 1933

Jack’s Manual 1908, 1910, 1912

Jack’s Manual 1908, 1910, 1912

255. Opera Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1 oz Beefeater London Dry Gin
  1 oz Dubonnet Rouge (American recipe)
  2 tsp homemade crème de mandarine

Shake, strain into cocktail glass, twist orange peel on top, serve. — This Martinez riff with the unique touch and fragrance of mandarin first appears in Straub 1914 (not 1913), from which it is borrowed for JM 1916.

233. Merry Widow Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1 oz Beefeater London Dry Gin
  1 oz Dubonnet Rouge Grand Apéritif

Fill mixing-glass with ice, stir, strain into cocktail glass, twist orange peel over glass, garnish, serve. — The fancifully named drink alludes to a play and an operetta. JM1908 calls for Byrrh wine instead of Dubonnet. This is typical of that period, as several of the drinks of this kind (excepting those with Dubonnet or St Raphael in the name) used Byrrh instead of Dubonnet as a rule. Straub 1913 has a variant of this Merry Widow (there are several recipes by the name) gives the option of Sweet Vermouth or Byrrh, but the similarity ends there. It also includes maraschino and Dry Vermouth (but no gin) and is to be shaken rather than stirred. The Old Waldorf Bar Book matches Grohusko’s recipe but instructs the bartender to frappé rather than stir. JM switches from Byrrh to Dubonnet in 1916.
 

228. Mary Garden Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1.5 oz Dubonnet Rouge
  0.5 oz Dolin Dry Vermouth
  1 dash Pierre Ferrand Dry Curaçao

Fill mixing-glass with cracked ice, stir, strain into cocktail glass, serve. — Named after the famous, early-20th c. opera singer (d. 1967), this lighter, aperitif wine-based cocktail first appears in JM 1916.

190. Jack Zeller Cocktail

 My interpretation:
  1 oz Dubonnet Rouge
  1 oz prepared gin (Captive Spirits Big Gin infused with orange peels & syrup, strained)

Stir with ice, strain, serve. — This original recipe of JM 1908 (where “Booth’s Orange Gin” is specified) depends on a unique ingredient to balance the lightly bitter/astringent qualities of the aperitif component. While orange gin has only recently begun to reappear on the market, certain substitutions were available in the recent past, such as Seagram’s Twisted Orange (now out of production). However, the mixologist may easily obtain a good result by infusing his own gin (preferably an American or botanical style) with carefully sliced orange peels and sugar syrup to taste. If orange gin is not feasible or to taste, one may follow the Straub 1913 recipe, which calls simply for “Booth’s Old Tom Gin.”

162. Hart Cocktail

My interpretation:
  0.75 oz Castle & Key London Dry Gin
  0.75 Dubonnet
  0.67 (2/3 jigger) Dolin Rouge Sweet Vermouth 

In mixing-glass with ice stir, strain into cocktail glass, serve. — As the laconic instructions suggest, this recipe comes from Straub 1913, where it is given in measurements of perfect thirds, thence to JM 1916 where the sweet vermouth portion is reduced slightly in proportion to the others.
 

161. Hamilton Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1.5 oz Dubonnet
  0.5 oz The Famous Grouse

Stir with broken ice, strain into cocktail glass, serve. — This cocktail, nowadays known as a Rob Roy (esp. with bitters and a cherry), first appears under this name in JM 1910s (Third Edition). The bitters and cherry and not necessary. There is a Hamilton in the Lowlands of Scotland, which leads us to conclude that perhaps a Scotch of that area, such as Auchentoshan, might be most appropriate.
 

125. Edner Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1 oz Dubonnet
  1 oz Gin Lane 1751 London Dry

Fill mixing-glass with cracked ice, stir, strain into cocktail glass, twist orange peel over glass, garnish, and serve. — The Edner Cocktail, resembling closely the standard Dubonnet Cocktail, is an old JM standby from 1908, originally using the aperitif St. Raphaël, this being replaced by the similar Dubonnet sometime before 1916, presumably because it was no longer available in the US, or else for the sake of economy, after the Dubonnet Cocktail was added to the repertoire and claimed a spot on the shelf.
 

124. Dutch Charlie's Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1 oz Hochstadter’s Straight Rye
  1 oz Dubonnet
  0.5 Dolin Rouge
  2 dashes Angostura bitters

Fill mixing-glass with ice, stir 30 seconds, strain into cocktail glass, serve. — From Straub 1913, this vinous Manhattan riff was borrowed for JM 1916, changing the original 1:1:1 recipe to 2:2:1.
 

120. Dubonnet Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1 oz Gin Lane 1751 London Dry
  1 oz Dubonnet Rouge (US)

In mixing-glass 1/2 full of cracked ice stir 20 seconds with even stroke, strain into cocktail glass, serve. — In 1908, this somewhat controversial cocktail (spelled Doubonnet at first) has the instructions “Twist of orange peel, shake, strain, and serve.” The instruction continues unimpeded until 1916, when it is revised in no uncertain terms: “Stir well, don’t shake.” This correction could not have come from Straub 1913, which also calls for shaking; yet 1916 may have Straub in mind when it further specifies “No bitters of any kind,” since Straub’s recipe (and perhaps others’) called for orange bitters. The Savoy Cocktail Book calls only for stirring and straining. Thus in JM 1916 we have a clean break from past JM tradition with a proper stir replacing the shake, no twist of orange peel, and no bitters. It is a clean drink of the connoisseur who likes his Dubonnet to be unadulterated. NB: No attempt to shake or add orange products was made in the pictured cocktail.
 

104. Coronation Cocktail

 My interpretation:
  0.75 oz Noilly Prat Extra Dry Vermouth
  0.75 oz Hawthorn’s London Dry Gin
  0.5 oz Dubonnet

Stir with ice, strain, serve. — This cocktail appears in the 3rd Edition, JM 1910, calling for equal portions and “orange gin” rather than dry gin, as it appears in Straub 1913:

The change in proportions may have been for finer balance of the palate, or perhaps to conserve an increasingly rare Dubonnet. The name and year suggest this was created after the death of Edward VII in preparation for the coronation of George V, but it may have been for Edward VII’s coronation in 1902.