375. White Elephant Cocktail

My interpretation:

  1.25 oz Tinkerman’s Sweet Spice Gin

  1 oz Cocchi Vermouth di Torino

  1 egg white

Fill mixing-glass with chipped or broken ice, shake well (about 30 seconds), strain into cocktail glass, serve. — This creamy Sweet Martini + Egg White first appears in Straub 1913 in a 2:1 ratio. When it was taken into JM1916, it was weakened slightly to 3:2. The 2:1 ratio also appears in The Old Waldorf Bar Days (1931), doubtless a belated record of the original source.

340. Sunshine Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1.5 oz Beefeater London Dry Gin
  0.5 oz Noilly Prat Extra Dry Vermouth
  1 tsp lime juice
  1/2 tsp Jack Rudy Grenadine
  1 egg white

Shake vigorously with a little ice about 45 seconds, strain into claret glass or 5-6 oz stemmed glass, serve. — This gin-and-lime brunch recipe, resembling a frothed up, fancy Gin Daisy/Sour, first appears in Straub 1913 with some additional details (Old Tom gin, 2-person drink), whence it finds its way into JM1916. An unrelated drink by this name in Barflies & Cocktails (1927) is essentially a brandy-rum sour. The 1931 Old Waldorf Bar Days has a somewhat related Sunshine amounting to a lemon-lime silver fizz in a lemonade glass, omitting sweetener. Modern drinks bearing this name are unrelated, or perhaps derived from McElhone’s recipe.
  

307. Royal Smile Cocktail

My interpretation:
  2 oz Castle & Key Dry Gin
  2 T orange juice
  1 egg white

Beat egg white and orange juice briefly, then add gin. Shake well (30 seconds), strain into claret glass, serve. — There are different recipes by this name, to which is variously appended, or not, the epithet “Cocktail.” Straub has a “Royal Smile,” implied to be a cocktail, consisting of apple brandy, dry vermouth, grenadine, and lime (or lemon) juice shaken with egg white and served in a claret glass. McElhone has similar, replacing the dry vermouth with gin. In fact, JM 1912, where we first find our present recipe, has that recipe also, but without the “Cocktail” epithet, and without the egg white:

 The applejack-gin-grenadine-sour (here lemon instead of lime) omits the egg (as does the Old Waldorf) and makes it essentially a Jack Rose stiffened with a little gin—but Jack’s Jack Rose has a squirt of seltzer. Meanwhile, the Royal Smile Cocktail here is written out, unusually, in 19th-century paragraph form, is an orange blossom with egg white, served in the other drink’s claret glass. — I believe this cocktail has its cousin in the Savoy “Royal Cocktail No. 1” which gives lemon juice and powdered sugar instead of orange juice, and uses the whole egg (with the yolk); the color would be about the same, and an inaccurate visual memory of the drink’s preparation might explain the difference. This in turn is related to the Royal Fizz, which adds seltzer. Indeed, the drink resembles the basis of an orange-gin fizz minus the fizz. The present recipe might well be of Jack’s own devising.

 

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.
 

238. Millionaire Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1.5 oz Rittenhouse Rye
  1 egg white
  1 tsp Pierre Ferrand Dry Curaçao
  2 dashes Jack Rudy Grenadine
  1 dash Regan’s Orange Bitters

Shake well (30 seconds) with cracked ice, strain into large (claret) glass, serve. — Note that while I usually humor JM when it calls unnecessarily for shaking, I could not here countenance the prospect of imbibing a drink in which the egg white is merely stirred. However, the stirring technique is specific all the way back to Straub 1913, from which it is reproduced in JM 1916. This must be an error. The same recipe in Barflies and Cocktails (1927) is indeed well shaken, where it is also attributed to the Ritz Hotel, London. The Savoy Cocktail Book has two Millionaire cocktails, neither of which we need concern ourselves with here. The only resemblance is that one of them has an egg white (well shaken, naturally).

There is, however, in the Jack’s Manual tradition a different, earlier “Millionaire’s” (with possessive) recipe going back to JM1910 and corroborated to some degree in the 1931 Old Waldorf Bar Book, where it is called “Millionaire” and described as a Martini with grenadine poured on top, in a glass. JM1910 is a little more complex but essentially the same drink: A 5:4:1 mix of dry gin, dry vermouth, and grenadine with juice of 1/2 lime, stirred. This drink was no doubt replaced by the richer but unrelated Ritz / Straub drink to avoid confusion. Pictured below is the result of that later recipe:

 

225. Marqueray Cocktail

My interpretation:
  2 oz Bluecoat American Dry Gin
  1 egg white
  2 dashes Jack Rudy Grenadine (about 1 tsp)
  1 dash St. George Absinthe Verte
  1/2 T fresh lime juice

Shake all ingredients well with cracked ice, about 30 seconds, strain into cocktail glass, serve. — Borrowed from Straub 1913 for JM 1916, this Gin Sour recipe, with lime for the sour and grenadine for the sweet, distinguishes itself from similar recipes (like the Sunshine Cocktail) by the added enhancement of absinthe, which for a modern twist could be dashed or sprayed on top before serving instead of shaking in. Another example is found here.

216. Love Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1 oz Bluecoat American Dry Gin
  1 oz Alessio Vermouth Chinato
  1 dash Regan’s Orange Bitters
  1 egg white

Shake ingredients with ice, strain into cocktail glass, serve. — This recipe is taken directly from Straub 1913 for JM1916. My interpretation uses Jack’s definition of a Martini (1:1) rather than Straub’s (2:1), though the duplicated language “Martini Cocktail” certainly refers to each author’s respective version.

197. John Cocktail

My interpretation:

  0.5 Bols Genever

  0.5 Noilly Prat Dry

  0.5 Alessio Chinato

 1 egg white

Shake all but egg with ice 20 seconds, strain out ice, add egg white, shake 15 seconds, strain into cocktail glass. — This Perfect Martini riff using Holland Gin first appears in Straub 1913 and is picked up in JM 1916. The name may refer to the Holland Gin, i.e., genever, as the same ingredient is the distinguishing factor in the John Collins.