349. Tulane Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1 oz Castle & Key London Dry Gin
  1 oz Martini & Rossi Sweet Vermouth
  1 tsp strawberry syrup

Fill shaker with fine ice, shake, strain into cocktail glass, serve. — This Dry Martini with a strawberry twist first appears in Straub 1914. Since I had strawberry syrup made recently, I used that instead of strawberry brandy. The difference is probably minimal at such a small quantity.

298. Richmond Cocktail

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

Fill mixing-glass with fine ice, stir, strain, and serve. — This light, vermouth-based cocktail first appears in JM1908. It is borrowed by Straub in 1913, which alters the ratio to 2:1 and changes stirring to shaking. The Savoy Cocktail Book (1930) features a stiffer Richmond Cocktail, similarly a Duo, but composed of 2 parts Plymouth Vermouth and 1 part Kina Lillet, with a squeeze of lemon. While apparently different in effect, it’s possible that the color of the Kina Lillet (amber) and Plymouth Gin (clear) appeared to match the vermouth components of this Richmond, so that the recipe derives from the same source, if inexactly reproduced, or else intentionally amended. The Savoy Richmond, incidentally, is shaken like the Straub version.

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.
 

 

116. Dorr Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1.5 oz Hawthorn’s London Dry Gin
  0.75 oz Martini & Rossi Dry Vermouth
  0.25 oz Dolin Rouge

Fill mixing-glass half-full of fine (chipped) ice, shake, strain into cocktail glass, garnish with orange peel; serve. — A cold, diluted perfect martini riff, easy on the sweet vermouth, unchanged from its first appearance in JM 1908.
 

66.5. Byrrh Cocktail*

Note: I am departing slightly from my formerly stated intentions in order to include a recipe which, being featured in two early editions of JM, as well as in Straub 1913/1914, was sadly omitted in JM 1916, and in JM 1933 for all intents and purposes was replaced by the B. V. D. Cocktail, at least positionally speaking—hence the half-number.

My interpretation:
  0.75 oz Noilly Prat Extra Dry
  0.75 oz Bulleit 95 Rye (90 pf)
  1.5 oz Violet Frères Byrrh Grand Quinquina

Fill mixing-glass half-full of fine ice (hand-cracked or mallet-broken), stir, strain into cocktail glass, express orange peel, garnish, and serve. — The 1908 edition specifies Noilly Prat Vermouth, which I was happily able to obey. This turns out to be a good cocktail, justifying its inclusion here. One wonders whether Byrrh stocks or importations were reduced after the Sad Era. JM 1933 features Byrrh in only one recipe: The Byrrh Wine Daisy, where JM 1910 additionally offers the Byrrh Wine Rickey.

50. Booby Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1.25 oz St. George Botanivore
  1.5 oz fresh lime juice
  0.25 oz Jack Rudy grenadine.

Shake well (20 seconds) with fine ice (use mallet and bag), strain, and serve. — Properly a Booby Sour (cf. Grenadine Gin Sour, p. 216), this drink first appears in Straub and is thence taken up into JM 1916 with the single addition “and serve.” The dilution from a long shake on fine ice should bring this drink up to capacity and sufficiently soften the lime’s acidity. One question is whether or not to strain the drink, since no instruction is given.  This is a shim or lighter drink in any case.
 
  

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.