381. Yankee Prince Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1.5 oz Tinkerman’s Sweet Spice Gin
  0.5 oz Grand Marnier
  1 tsp clementine juice

Fill mixing-glass with fine ice, shake 20 seconds, strain into cocktail glass, garnish with freshly cracked filbert or hazelnut. — The hazelnut floats! Of course, if this drink is meant to be served unstrained (as many interpret the typically terse Straubian instruction frappez here, though in other recipes this demonstrably implies straining also), its floatability is irrelevant. This drink, named after the Broadway musical that opened in 1908 at the Knickerbocker theater, appears first in Straub 1913/1914, and from there is taken into JM 1916 without change.
 

379. Wonder Cocktail

 My interpretation:
  1.25 oz Bombay Sapphire
  0.75 oz Cocchi Vermouth di Torino
  1 quarter slice pineapple

Fill mixing-glass with broken ice, shake vigorously (frappé), strain into cocktail glass, garnish with fresh pineapple slice — Yet another martini+pineapple combination, it appears first in Straub 1913 in a 2:1 ratio, then in JM1916 with the present 3:2, as usual.

366. Waldorf Queen Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1 oz Tinkerman’s Gin (Sweet Spice)
  0.5 oz Martini & Rossi Rosso
  0.5 Dolin Dry
  1 quarter orange
  2 quarter-slices pineapple

Muddle pineapple in shaker, add ingredients and fine ice, rappé well (shake vigorously 30 till nicely frosted), strain into cocktail glass, serve. — In 1913, Jacques Straub, ever the entrepeneur of all things Waldorf, includes this Bronx variant under the name Waldorf Queen’s. JM1916 picks up with slight variation, dropping the possessive marker (and thus any connection to a New York borough name, a là Bronx). The same drink proved popular and was included in books like McElhone’s 1927 Barflies & Cocktails (under the simplified name Waldorf). The Old Waldorf Bar Days (1931), which usually holds the best claim, calls it the Waldorf Bronx and makes it much simpler than a Bronx, with only gin, orange juice, and pineapple slices:

Here is my version of Jack’s recipe.

362. Vienna Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1 oz Martini & Rossi Rosso (sweet vermouth)
  1 oz Noilly Prat extra dry vermouth
  1 dash St. George absinthe verte

Fill mixing-glass with fine ice, frappé (shake vigorously), strain into cocktail glass, serve. — This vermouth x2 duo + absinthe first appears in Straub 1913. A light drink that can be enjoyed anytime, it can easily be imagined being deposited on a small café table in Vienna, Austria or Vienna, Virginia.

361. Vermouth Cocktail

2 oz Martini & Rossi sweet vermouth
1 dash Fee Brother’s cardamom bitters
1 dash Luxardo maraschino

Fill mixing-glass with fine ice, frappé (shake well), strain into cocktail, serve. — This recipe appears in JM 1908 following the Vermouth Frappé, the distinction apparently confined to the addition here of maraschino. Boker’s bitters is best replicated by Dr. Elmegirab’s Boker’s bitters, but any aromatic bitters will do adequately here if the vermouth has a harmonious character. The Savoy Cocktail Book (1930) gives the option sweet or dry vermouth, and of 4 dashes orange bitters or 1 dash Angostura, but no maraschino; the drink is stirred rather than shaken. The Old Waldorf Bar Book (1931) lists the French and Italian Vermouth Cocktails separately, calling for one dash of orange bitters for each.

343. Taxi Cocktail

My interpretation:

  1 oz Castle & Key dry gin

  1 oz Dolin Dry

  2 tsp lime juice

  2 tsp St. George absinthe verte

Fill shaker with fine ice, frappé / shake vigorously 40-50 strokes, strain into cocktail glass, serve. — This cold dry martini with lime and absinthe comes from Straub 1913 and finds its way thence into JM1916, which changes barspoons to teaspoons but keeps everything else the same.

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.
  

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.

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).
 

314. Salome Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1 oz Beefeater London Dry Gin
  0.5 oz Noilly Prat Rouge
  0.5 oz Noilly Prat Dry
  2 dashes Fee Brothers Orange Bitters
  3 celery leaves

Shake vigorously with fine ice until shaker is covered with ice (about 30-40 seconds), strain into cocktail glass, garnish with celery leaf, serve. — This recipe, a Perfect Martini with an exotic, savory celery tinge, comes to JM1916 from Straub. In the Old Waldorf Bar Days (1931) which represents the root of the same tradition, a drink by the same name follows the St. Peter, but is a completely different drink consisting of Sweet Vermouth, Dubonnet, and absinthe; The Savoy (1930) had a probably related mixture of Sweet Vermouth, Dry Gin, and Dubonnet. The root of any drink in those days bearing this name is surely the book by Oscar Wilde, and perhaps more so, the infamous opera by Richard Strauss, written in 1905 with a US premiere in 1907.

309. Ruby Royal

My interpretation:
  1 oz Plymouth Sloe Gin
  1 oz Noilly Prat Dry
  3 dashes homemade raspberry syrup

Shake vigorously with fine ice 20 seconds, strain into cocktail glass, garnish with amarena cherry, serve. — This light dessert Duo, combining a liqueur and a vermouth, first appears in Straub 1913, from which it is borrowed for JM 1916. There are some similarities to some Ruby recipes but not enough to demonstrate firmly an intentional relation or derivation. The final color with good sloe gin is somewhat nearer rust-red than ruby. It is not recommended to use a brightly dyed sloe gin (such as Bols or De Kuyper) since, while it bestows a rubicund hue more reminiscent of the namesake jewel, it generally tastes like saccharine medicine.

286. Prince Henry Cocktail

My interpretation:
  0.75 oz Aria American Dry Gin
  0.75 oz Noilly Prat Rouge
  0.5 oz Hiram Walker Crème de Menthe (white)
  1 dash Regan’s Orange Bitters

 Frappé (shake vigorously with fine ice), strain into chilled cocktail glass, serve. — This cooling, minty Martini-riff appears first in laconic Straub, from which it is borrowed for JM 1916 without filling in the directions. Frappé drinks in this time are almost always strained. In the Old Waldorf Bar Book (1931), the Prince Henry is a Martini with a dash of crème de menthe on top, while the Prince is whisky with crème de menthe and orange bitters. This is further support for a Martini-style strained drink, rather than one served on fine ice (which frappé usually signifies today). The Old Waldorf Bar would be more trustworthy in this case than Straub, since it is based on the original recipe book to which Straub may or may not have had access. The 1935 revision by Crockett attributes the Martini-style drink to the commemoration of a visit by Prince Henry (Heinrich) of Prussia in 1902.
 

274. Pick-Me-Up Cocktail

 My interpretation:
  0.75 oz Rémy Martin VSOP
  0.75 oz Lustau Vermut
  0.5 oz St. George Absinthe Verte

Frappé (shake intensely with fine ice) 25-30 seconds, strain, serve. — This bracing morning recipe first appears in Straub 1913 in perfect thirds, and from thence is borrowed for JM1916 with a slight reduction of the absinthe. Typical of a class of drinks reputed to lift the spirits especially in the morning, it resembles similarly named recipes in a number of mixology books. Most notably, I may mention the 1931 Old Waldorf Bar Days recipe, 1:1 Absinthe to Sweet Vermouth with 2 dashes acid/lemon phosphate; shake, strain. Though absinthes vary in character, the principle that guides Jack’s adjustment here is well to note. With a softer white absinthe, for example, one might choose to use equal thirds, with a VS cognac, perhaps reduce its quantity. However, the drink should not be perfectly balanced. It should be “bracing.”

267. Parson's Cocktail

My interpretation:
  2 oz Uncle Val’s Botanical Gin
  0.5 oz Noilly Prat Rouge
  1 piece orange peel

Fill mixing-glass with fine ice, frappé, strain into whisky glass, garnish with fresh orange peel, serve. — The original 1908 recipe in Jack’s Manual calls for Gordon dry gin, editions 2–4 for “high and dry” gin. Properly, this drink should have a higher proof dry gin, such as Castle & Key or Beefeater. However, the botanical gin works quite well in the circumstances, though it may not please the titular Parson. It is meant to be a bracing drink with an orange undertone, served very cold and somewhat diluted in a comfortable glass. Straub 1913/1914 has a “Parson” (non-possessive) under which the reader is referred to the Rossington, a similar drink, described as 2:1 Old Tom Gin and Sweet Vermouth stirred with an orange peel.

207. Leonora Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1 oz Bluecoat American Dry Gin
  0.5 oz fresh orange juice
  0.5 oz homemade raspberry syrup

Frappé (shake well) with 1/2 glass cracked ice, strain into cocktail glass, serve. — This recipe of the Daisy variety first appears under this name in JM 1908. It resembles the Harvester with raspberry syrup substituted for half the orange juice.

204. La Roche Cocktail

 My interpretation:
  0.75 oz Castle & Key Dry Gin
  0.75 oz Dolin Dry
  0.75 oz Lustau Vermut
  2 T fresh orange juice

Frappé (shake with cracked ice), strain into cocktail glass, serve. — This Bronx riff (resembling a perfect martini with OJ) comes in equal portions for easy preparation and makes a decent brunchtime libation. Its first appearance in JM 1912 (1910s) is in paragraph form rather than list form, which to me suggests borrowing from another, older-style source, like Boothby, which uses paragraphs. However, I have been unable to locate any possible source to date. Jack’s instruction to “frappez” here is rare, and as such, difficult to interpret precisely. He may simply mean shake hard with ice, or else he may refer to crushed or shaved ice being placed in the glass with the strained drink; but then, the instruction to shake is absent. I take it here as an synonym for shake.

172. Holstein Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1 oz Remy Martin VSOP
  1 oz Hiram Walker Blackberry Brandy
  1 dash Amaro Ciociaro

Shake 30 seconds with crushed ice, strain into cocktail glass, serve. — This Jack Grohusko original, ideal as an after-dinner brandy-based Duo, appears first in his Manual of 1908 and continues without change through every edition, being picked up by Straub along the way, who himself specifies Martell, though no brand is ever mentioned by Grohusko.

160. Hamersley Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1.5 oz Aviation American Gin
  0.5 oz Cocchi Vermouth di Torino 
  2 dashes Luxardo maraschino
 quarter orange (rind + 1/4 oz juice)

Squeeze orange-quarter into mixing-glass, drop in, add other ingredients, filled with crushed ice, and shake 30 seconds quickly, strain, and serve. — The quantity of juice and orange peels expressed from the inserted rind should not be so much as to render this cocktail a Blossom. It is rather to be considered a 3:1 martini (though shaken) with slight adjunct of maraschino and orange. The recipe is first found in JM 1910 (the 2nd Edition) and undergoes no change through the later editions.

 

133. Farmer’s Cocktail

 My interpretation:
  1.25 oz Castle & Key London Dry
  0.75 oz Dolin Dry
  0.5 oz Dolin Rouge
  1 dash Angostura

Fill mixing-glass 1/3 full with cracked ice,  frappé (shake with fast, short strokes, rotating mixing-glass), strain into cocktail glass, serve. — This Perfect Martini riff produces a bit more than usual to accommodate more easily the precise proportions, so I use a small wine, but it could be divided up into two vintage glasses. Its first appearance is in JM 1908, calling for Chappaz and Ballor as the preferred vermouths. Straub 1913 reproduces the recipe.