371. Webster Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1 oz Plymouth Gin
  0.5 oz Martini & Rossi Extra Dry
  0.25 oz Rothman & Winter Orchard Apricot
  0.25 oz fresh lime juice

Shake well (30 seconds suffices to achieve good consistency, strain into cocktail glass, serve. —  The first thing to notice about this delicious Martini riff augmented by discreet portions of Apricot and lime, is that the math is all wrong. Jack may have meant percentages of 2 oz (a grown man’s drink), making this a larger drink than usual (i.e., 2.6 oz + dilution). However, I think it quite instructive to refer to the Savoy Cocktail Book (1930) here, the putative source, which calls for the proportion outlined above in my interpretation. This leads us to conclude that there is here a typo in the second line, and that apricot brandy should read 20%, not 50%. Of course, in type the characters are approximately mirrored along a horizontal axis. That would put us at 2 oz plus about 1 tsp., well within cocktail glass capacity of the time after dilution.

363. Virgin Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1 oz Plymouth Gin
  1 oz Martini & Rossi sweet vermouth
  3 dashes Angostura bitters
  2 dashes homemade raspberry syrup

Fill mixing-glass half full of ice, stir well (30 seconds), strain into cocktail glass, serve. — This martini + raspberry and angostura first appears in JM 1908 specifying Plymouth gin. The specification falls away by 1933. A different recipe by the same name appears in Barflies & Cocktails (1927) calling for Forbidden Fruit liqueur, creme de menthe, and gin, which is also in the Savoy Cocktail Book (1930). This book has also has a Virgin Special, a large-format drink with raspberry, gooseberry, redcurrant, brandy, gin, and fruit.

316. Savoy Tango Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1 oz Plymouth Gin
  1 oz Laird’s Applejack 

Shake 20 seconds, strain into cocktail glass, serve. — This boozy Duo recipe (of course it takes two to “tango”), originally from the Savoy Cocktail Book (1930) is first borrowed for JM1933, but with the unfortunate typo which turns the original sloe gin into an unspecified kind of gin and makes a less palatable drink (esp. if you only have Applejack instead of the Bonded Apple Brandy), which is why we cannot suppose the alteration from sloe gin to gin to be purposeful (usually in JM1933, “gin” represents an older Tom gin, while dry gin and plymouth gin are specified by name).
 

The original Savoy cocktail is less boozy and more balanced:
 

311. St. Francis Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1 oz Plymouth Gin
  1 oz Noilly Prat Dry
  1 pimento-stuffed olive (pimola)

Fill shaker with ice, shake for 10 seconds, strain, drop in olive, serve. — First appearing in Straub 1913, this gin-based Duo with a fussy garnish was thence incorporated into JM1916. The instructions are slightly misleading are not original. Until 1933, there were no instructions. It does not appear that the pimola was intended to be shaken, but simply to be added as a garnish. This mixture is supposed to have been invented at the St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco, and is one of the drinks to which the modern idea of the dry Martini is attributed.

308. Ruby Cocktail

  

My interpretation:
  1.75 oz Plymouth Gin
  0.25 oz Peychaud’s Bitters

Fill shaker with broken ice, shake, strain into cocktail glass, serve. — In 1910, that name is spelt “Rubie.” (And Peychaud’s is spelt “Peychard’s”.) Dry gin is called for at first. Straub’s recipe by this name has grenadine, applejack, and dry gin. The Old Waldorf recipe is quite different, and more reminiscent of the Rose in French recipes: Dry vermouth, cherry brandy, acid phosphate, orange bitters, and maraschino. The present recipe is much drier but has similarly appropriate coloring.

 

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.

 

291. Queen's Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1 oz Plymouth Gin
  0.5 oz Dolin Dry Vermouth
  0.5 oz Noilly Prat Rouge
  1 piece pineapple (in mixing-glass)
  1 T orange juice

Fill mixing-glass with cracked ice, shake, strain into cocktail glass, serve with fresh pineapple garnish. — This recipe appears at first glance to be a riff on the Bronx in order to give the borough of Queens its own drink; and thus, the spelling should probably omit the apostrophe. Indeed, by comparison with some popular Bronx recipes, its only peculiar contribution is the addition of pineapple to the shaker. Long before its first appearance in 1916, there was a Queen’s Highball with Amer Picon and Grenadine (see JM 1908). This drink, clearly unrelated, appears eight years later without any precedent in Straub. Its analogs otherwise include the identically named “Queen’s” in Barflies & Cocktails (1927) and in the Savoy (1930), which specifies crushed pineapple, and the “Queen” in the Old Waldorf Bar Days (1931).
 

287. Princess Mary Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1.5 oz Plymouth Gin
  1.25 oz Hiram Walker Crème de Cacao (white)
  0.25 oz light cream

Fill shaker with ice, shake 25-30 seconds, strain into cocktail glass, serve. — If you think this sounds like an Alexander, wel, it is—at least, what is now thought of as an Alexander. In 1908, Jack Grohusko had an Alexander of a far different stripe: 2:1 rye and Benedictine, down, on a rock, with an orange twist; somewhat similar to the Colonel. This is found in JM and Straub until 1933. In Harry of Ciro’s ABCs of Mixing Cocktails (1923), the recipe is found by this description, along with its claim by the author of the book: it was invented by Harry McElhone in 1922 for the marriage of HRH Princess

Mary to Lord Lascelles; Harry’s Alexander has brandy, not gin—thus a Brandy Alexander. Barflies & Cocktails (1927), which also has the Princess Mary (along with repeated details on its creation), likewise gives the Alexander as brandy, cacao, and cream. The Old Waldorf Bar Days (1931) gives it with gin, cacao, and cream—identical to the Princess Mary, but that cocktail by McElhone is not present to confuse. In brief, while the Alexander appears in a variety of forms, the Princess Mary appears only with cream, cacao, and gin, usually in equal parts. It appears that the inclusion of the creamy Alexander occurs only in 1933 (along with addition of Alexander’s Sister) and without noting similarity to the Princess Mary). Note: I have used Plymouth Gin here, though the style is not specified in the recipe.
 

224. Marguerite Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1 oz Plymouth Gin
  1 oz Noilly Prat Extra Dry Vermouth
  2 dashes Regan’s Orange Bitters
  1 dash St. George Absinthe Verte

Fill mixing-glass with cracked ice, stir, strain into cocktail glass, add regular olive (not stuffed), serve. — This old Martini riff, one of the recipes that helped shape the modern concept of the Martini, is part of the JM tradition going back to 1908. Whence it came before that is unclear, though the unique language in the instructions (“stir up well with spoon”) points to an earlier source outside of JM. In 1908, it specifies Field’s Orange Bitters and Chappaz dry vermouth. Later, Straub 1913 includes the recipe, olive omitted, making it essentially a Dry Martini (he also omits the Plymouth specification).
 

214. Lone Tree Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1 oz Bluecoat Gin
  0.5 oz Noilly Prat Extra Dry
  0.5 oz Alessio Vermouth Chinato

Fill mixing-glass with ice, shake, strain into cocktail glass, serve. — This perfect Martini riff is shaken instead of stirred, and found in several books. The first JM to feature it is the Third Edition (1912 or 1910s) where it is misspelled “Lond Tree.” This recipe is reflected in the Savoy Cocktail Book (1930) in a “thirds” ratio, with the addition of Orange Bitters, while McElhone (1927) calls for simply squeezing the orange peel in the shaker. These niceties might have been missed by Jack and anyone else peeking at the old Waldorf bar manual. A variant recipe in Straub (1913) and the Waldorf Bar Book (1935) indicates equal portions of Old Tom Gin and Sweet Vermouth with a dash of Orange Bitters. The latter publication traces the origin to drink enjoyed at the Old Waldorf by golfers playing at a certain course outside Philadelphia.

171. Hoffman House Cocktail

 My interpretation:
  1 oz Aviation American Gin
  1 oz Dolin Dry
  2 dashes Regan’s Orange Bitters
  
Shake 30 seconds, strain into cocktail glass. Twist lemon over glass, garnish, and serve. — This recipe from the famed Hoffman House bar appears previously in the Savoy Cocktail Book (1930) but in no prior JM edition. The Savoy specification of Plymouth gin is omitted in favor of a generic denomination. The Waldorf-Astoria Bar Book adds this note:

I have used a softer American in view of the apparently original call for Plymouth:

34. Billin Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1.75 oz Plymouth Sloe Gin
  1.25 oz Hawthorn’s London Dry Gin

Fill mixing-glass with broken ice, stir, strain, serve. Garnish with lemon. — An overproof gin like Death’s Door would improve this drink a bit.
 

24. Barry Cocktail

This is an interesting entry that presents a few items for consideration. Firstly, be amused by the misattribution ’Frisco in the 1908 Edition:
 

Secondly, the method and description have an air of being borrowed from another source. This is not Jack’s natural voice.
 
My interpretation:
  4 dashes Angostura bitters
  1.5 oz Hawthorn’s London Dry Gin
  1.5 oz Martini & Rossi Rosso Sweet Vermouth
  5 drops (about 1 barspoon) Hiram Walker White Crème de Menthe 

In small mixing-glass with one large piece of ice stir mixture well (20 seconds), strain into small bar glass (cordial or lowball) and serve with ice water (separate glass). Squeeze lemon peel or twist lemon rind over drink and use for garnish. — A cooling bracer (more bracing if you use overproof / Plymouth gin) that would be just the thing to sip in a makeshift “Barbary Coast” booze-tent after a tiring day of hauling charred timbers and clearing blackened bricks from the remains of your recently burnt-down house in the City by the Bay (Jack’s First Edition came out a couple years after the Great Earthquake and Fire). And it comes with built-in mouthwash.