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.

354. Tuxedo Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1.5 oz Gin Lane 1751 Old Tom Gin
  1.5 oz Dolin Dry Vermouth
  3 dashes Angostura bitters
  1 dash Luxardo maraschino
  1 dash St. George absinthe verte

Fill mixing-glass half full with ice, stir well (about 30 seconds), strain into cocktail glass, add cherry (here Amarena), serve. —This heavy-hitter classic cocktail from the Tuxedo Club, NY, is offered by Grohusko in a redder, more heavily bittered incarnation. Straub 1913 sees Jack and raises him a barspoon of sherry wine (authentic secret or misguided allusion to the Tussetto? See previous post). McElhone garnishes this with a lemon twist. Craddock (in the No. 2 by this name) has cherry and expressed lemon peel, but the drink is shaken. For further information, see Difford’s detailed post.
 

350. Turf Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1 oz Castle & Key London Dry Gin
  1 oz Martini & Rossi Sweet Vermouth
  2 dashes St. George Absinthe Verte
  2 dashes Luxardo maraschino
  2 dashes Regan’s Orange Bitters
  1 dash Fee Brothers Cardamom Bitters

Fill mixing-glass half full of ice, stir well, strain into cocktail glass, drop in olive, serve. — This Dry Martini augmented by dashes from half the liquor cabinet appears in JM1908 and continues unchanged. It becomes the Turf Cocktail No. 1 in Straub 1913, where the No. 2 is Holland gin, sweet vermouth, and bitters—essentially a Sweet Martini with genever, which is the recipe named “Turf Club” in JM1916 (see the next post), but simply “Turf” in the Old Waldorf Bar Book (1931).

 

339. Strawberry Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1.5 oz Martell Cognac VS
  0.5 oz homemade strawberry syrup
  1 dash Luxardo maraschino
  2 dashes Regan’s orange bitters

Fill mixing-glass with ice, shake, strain into cocktail glass, serve. — This fruity, “improved” strawberry and brandy dessert duo is first found in Straub 1913 and is borrowed for JM1916. The Savoy Cocktail Book (1930) features a large-format (6 serving) drink made with strawberries, orange juice, whisky, and ice. Closer is the Old Waldorf Bar Days (1931) recipe, which only differs by reduction of orange bitters by 1 dash.

 

324. Silver Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1 oz Beefeater Gin
  1 oz Noilly Prat Dry Vermouth
  2 dashes Regan’s orange bitters
  2 dashes Luxardo maraschino
  1 dash gum syrup
  1 dash Angostura bitters

Stir well (30 seconds) in mixing-glass half full of ice, strain into cocktail glass, squeeze lemon peel, garnish, serve. — This recipe is first found in JM1908 and continues without change to JM1933. Straub 1913 shows a simpler formula with sweet vermouth and no gum syrup. McElhone’s recipe in Barflies & Cocktails (1927), ascribing the authorship to Pat O’Brien of the Knickerbocker, uses dry vermouth, but instead of gum syrup calls for egg white and orgeat—for which Jack’s use of gum syrup would be a reasonable, if lackluster, substitute. The Savoy Cocktail Book simplifies on Jack’s recipe by dropping the Angostura and gum syrup, bringing it closer to an augmented dry Martini or Tuxedo. This idea is also reflected in the Old Waldorf Bar Days book, which calls for a Martini with maraschino, frappé.
   

321. Sherry Cocktail

My interpretation:
  2 oz Lustau Amontillado Los Arcos
  2 dashes Fee Brothers Cardamom Bitters
  1 dash Luxardo maraschino

Stir with ice, strain into cocktail glass, squeeze lemon peel, garnish with cherry (and lemon). — Obviously I have departed from Jack’s recipe on the supposition that a Sherry Cocktail ought properly to have sherry, not port. Port would have improved this cocktail (as would a superior bitters). After several attempts, I settled on Port and Angostura bitters (Dr. Elmegirab would be good), though I thought the Bristol Cream Sherry was a good runner up. Something sweet of that kind must have been used originally. 

Clearly, this is a very old recipe, as the name, ingredients, and characteristic wording suggest (directions such as “stir up with a spoon” are found mostly in books predating Boothby). It already appears in JM1908. What is of interest here is when, precisely, the recipe was altered by Jack Grohusko. A cursory investigation of the Manuals reveals the answer to be 1910 (the Second Edition), when suddenly “port wine” appears. Was there a sherry shortage? Or did customers think the “sherry wine” of the earlier versions made it too sour or insipid? Straub, at any rate, retains the use of sherry in 1913, and substitutes orange bitters for the maraschino.

289. Pueblo Cocktail

My interpretation:
  .33 oz Hiram Walker crème de menthe (dyed green)
  .33 oz Raspberry syrup
  .33 oz Luxardo Maraschino
  .33 oz Copper & Kings Brandy
  .33 oz Chartreuse Yellow
  .33 oz Pierre Ferrand Dry Curaçao (dyed brown)

Combine ingredients in shaker with ice, shake 20 seconds, strain into cocktail glass (or pousse café glass if you like), serve. — This interesting and somewhat sweet, if not beautiful, concoction seems like a jest, but likely has a very practical origin as a way to use a botched Pousse Café, e.g., when poured incautiously, sequenced incorrectly, or accidentally disturbed. Into the shaker it would go, given a new name and so the ingredients salvaged (it may have been offered at a discounted rate or even on the house, in which case, at least the ingredients did not go to waste). If this indeed is the case, and as the recipe suggests, the drink produced will be only a little larger than a Pousse Café due to dilution while shaking; thus a smaller glass may be preferred. Otherwise, if one actually sets out to make a Pueblo, the ingredients might well be enlarged to a 1/3 oz each.

We find this recipe in Straub, and then JM 1916, under the name “Peblo,” and in the Old Waldorf Bar Days (1931) as “Peplo.”
 

241. Morning Cocktail

The Morning Cocktail is an old standard shared by several cocktail manuals, always involving brandy and sweet vermouth augmented by dashes of various ingredients and served with a lemon twist. The name recalls the origin of the cocktail as a genteel morning pick-me-up. This version in JM1933 goes back to the first edition in 1908, showing by its lack of change the perfection of this early form and the regard for it among genteel morning-tide tipplers. Barflies and Cocktails (1927) specifies orange bitters for the generic bitters given here (I used Fee Brothers Cardamom/Boker’s Style this time), and adds a cherry in the glass along with the twist, which variation is reproduced also in the Savoy Cocktail Book (1930). JM omits the cherry.
 

180. Imperial Cocktail

 

My interpretation:

  1 oz Big Gin

  1 oz Dolin Dry

  1 dash Luxardo maraschino

  1 dash Angostura bitters 

Stir well with ice (25 seconds), strain into cocktail glass, serve with olive. — This recipe comes from the Savoy Cocktail Book (1930).

 

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.

 

127. Emerson Cocktail

 My interpretation:
  1 oz Hayman’s Old Tom Gin
  0.5 oz Cocchi Vermouth di Torino
  0.5 oz fresh lime juice
  3 dashes Luxardo maraschino

Fill shaker with cracked ice, shake, strain into cocktail glass, serve. — Borrowed without change from Straub 1913 for JM 1916, this interestingly balanced mixture hovers between a Martinez and an Aviation, a sort of Martinez sour (as some have noted) which does best with a slightly bitter vermouth.

112. Dean Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1 oz Bulleit Rye
  1 oz Cocchi Vermouth di Torino
  1 dash Amaro CioCiaro
  1 dash Luxardo maraschino

Fill mixing-glass with ice, stir, strain into cocktail glass, serve. — A good Manhattan riff, similar to the Brooklyn with its bitter orange quality, dating back to the first JM 1908.
  

108. Cris Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1.25 oz Hawthorn’s London Dry Gin
  1.25 oz Martini & Rossi Extra Dry Vermouth
  2 dashes Luxardo Maraschino

Fill mixing-glass with broken ice, stir, strain into cocktail glass, and serve. — This counterpart to the Christie, a JM standby from the start, and thus another 50/50 stirred martini riff, has maraschino substituted for the Peychaud’s Bitters.
 

102. Cook Cocktail

My Interpretation:
  1.5 oz Hawthorn’s London Dry Gin
  0.25 oz Luxardo Maraschino.
  1 T fresh lemon juice
  1 egg white 

Fill mixing-glass with broken ice, shake 15 seconds, omitting egg white. Strain out ice, add egg white, shake 15 seconds, strain into cocktail or sour glass, serve. — This Jack’s Manual staple, a Sour bearing some similarity to the Clover Club, first appears in the 1910, 2nd Edition and continues without change.

98. Colonial Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1 oz. Hawthorn’s London Dry Gin
  1 oz fresh ruby grapefruit juice
  3 dashes Luxardo maraschino

Fill mixing-glass with broken ice, shake well (20 seconds), and strain into cocktail glass; serve. — JM 1933 preserves the 1:1 ratio of Straub 1913, disregarding the drier 2:1 ratio of the Savoy. JM 1916, which is actually following Straub, has the ratio of 3:3:2 Old Tom gin, grapefruit juice, and maraschino, and further says the drink is for two (hence 2 1/2 jiggers + dilution) and has the alternate name The Miller.

79. Chinese Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1.5 oz Jack Rudy grenadine
  1.5 oz Myers’s Rum
  2 dashes Angostura bitters
  4 dashes Luxardo maraschino
  4 dashes Pierre Ferrand Dry Curaçao

Shake well (20 seconds) with broken ice, strain into cocktail glass. — The Chinese Cocktail was added to the JM 1933 without precedent in previous editions of the Manual. The proportions on such drinks with multiple dashes of this and that are best kept when we take into account that the original jigger is 2 ounces. Thus in increasing the drink volume for modern taste to about 3 ounces total, the bitters and minor additions may also need adjustment.
 

59. Brooklyn Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1.5 oz Bulleit Rye
  1.5 oz Martini & Rossi Rosso
  1 dash Amaro Ciociaro
  1 dash Luxardo maraschino

Fill mixing-glass with ice, stir, strain, and serve. — Much has been said of this Cocktail, universally attributed to Jack Grohusko (who includes it from 1908), with the bulk of commentary focusing on its slow reception and the alteration of the recipe in Straub 1913 by substitution of dry vermouth for sweet. Given that most of Straub’s borrowings from JM are patently aware of the difference between sweet and dry vermouth (the terminology “regular vermouth” for sweet appears later after the Sad Era), one must assume that Straub preferred the dry, perhaps for the sake of distinction as well as or more than for the sake of taste. The most Brooklynite aspect of this drink may be the prescription of a nigh-unobtainable ingredient and the ensuing quasi-gnostic debates regarding how the bartender obtained said contraband or which substitution may be best.
 

54. Bridal Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1.75 oz Uncle Val’s Restorative
  1.25 oz Yzaguirre Rojo
  1 dash Fee Brothers Orange Bitters
  1 dash Luxardo maraschino

Stir well (20 seconds) with ice, strain. Garnish with twisted orange peel; serve. — A delicious cocktail of the sweet “Martini” type which at this ratio might as easily be served at room-temperature. Straub, from whom Jack presumably acquired this recipe for his 1916 expanded and re-organized manual, specifies Holland maraschino.



 

46. Bobbie Burns Cocktail (for Two)

My interpretation:
  1 tsp (barspoon) fresh orange juice
  1 tsp (barspoon) Luxardo maraschino
  1 tsp fine sugar
  1.5 oz The Famous Grouse Blended Scotch
  1.5 oz Yzaguirre Rojo Sweet Vermouth

Shake with ice, strain into two glasses. — This drink, which I hesitate to call a cocktail (perhaps a sort of blossom) comes from Straub’s pocket manual and is designated there also as “for two”—so I made two. Not sure that’s what was meant. Since Straub specifies 1/2 jiggers, Jack has 50%’s here. Still, two 1/2 jiggers will only get you one drink. Also note, the usual recipe for a Bobbie Burns today is a bit different.



 
 

31. Benz Cocktail

My interpretation:
  2.75 oz Noilly Prat Dry Vermouth
  0.25 oz St. George absinthe
  2 dashes Luxardo Maraschino

Fill mixing-glass with cracked ice, shake, strain, and serve. A nice lighter libation with still a stiff absinthe showing and balance of Luxardo fruit pleasantness. Plus it glows.