Old Pal – Classic Recipe & History

Old Pal
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Old Pal

0 from 0 votes Only logged in users can rate recipes
Course: DrinksCuisine: British
Servings

1

servings
Calories

120

kcal
Total time

3

minutes

How to make an Old Pal

Ingredients

  • 1 oz 1 Dry Vermouth

  • 1 oz 1 Campari

  • 1 oz 1 Scotch

Directions

  • Technique: Simple Stir
  • Combine all ingredients in the mixing glass.
  • Add ice to the mixing glass.
  • Stir the ingredients for 10 – 15 seconds. Try to avoid over-diluting the drink
  • Strain into a glass with ice.

Featured Video

History Of The Old Pal Cocktail

The oldest reference to the Old Pal I can find is on page 82 of the 1927 book “Barflies and Cocktails” by Harry McElhone. The recipe (Along with the oldest reference to the Boulevardier) comes from the contribution section of the book by Author Moss, who writes about some of his favorite cocktails around London and their origins told by the bartenders who make them. Author Moss writes:

“I remember way back in 1878, on the 30th of February to be exact, when the writer was discussing the subject with my old pal “Sparrow” Robertson and he said to yours truly, “get away with that stuff, my old pal, here’s the drink I invented when I Fired the pistol the first time at the old powderhall foot races and you can’t go wrong if you put a bet down on 1/3 Canadian Club, 1/3 Eyetalian Vermouth, and 1/3 Campari,” and then he told the writer that he would dedicate the cocktail to me and call it, My Old Pal.”

This is satirically written as there is no 30th of February, and Eyetalian is phonetically written to imitate someone with a heavy accent saying Italian. Italian Vermouth is also different from the typical vermouth used. Dry Vermouth is. McElhone seems to correct this when he adds the Old Pal as a recipe in his 1930 book “ABCs of Mixing Cocktails.” Recipe 208 on page 65 for the Old Pal is 1/3 Canadian Club Whisky, 1/3 French Vermouth, and 1/3 Campari. And states the recipe is by “Sparrow” Robertson, the sporting editor of the New York Herald in Paris.

The Old Pal is a fantastic cocktail and my preferred version of Campari with vermouth and spirit. If you like Boulevardiers or Negronis, then this is a must-try.

Variations Of This Cocktail.

Popular variations of this kind of cocktail are:

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New Algonquin – Recipe & History

New Algonquin
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New Algonquin

0 from 0 votes Only logged in users can rate recipes
Course: DrinksCuisine: American
Servings

1

servings
Calories

139

kcal
ABV

20%

Total time

3

minutes

Learn how to make the New Algonquin cocktail.

Ingredients

  • 1 oz 1 Pineapple Juice

  • 1 oz 1 Dry Vermouth

  • 2 oz 2 Rye Whiskey

Directions

  • Technique: Saxe Soda Shake
  • Combine all ingredients into a cocktail shaker.
  • Add one medium or two small ice cubes to the cocktail shaker and shake until the ice fully melts.
  • Without a strainer, pour the chilled and aerated drink into a glass.

Notes

Featured Video

The History Of The Algonquin Cocktails

I am able to find three unique Algonquin cocktail recipes, and I don’t think the three are related at all. The Oldest is from the 1926 book “The Cocktail Book” by L.C. Page. That recipe is just genever and wormwood bitters. The second is from 1935 book “Along the Wine Trail” by G. Selmer Fougner. That is the most commonly cited recipe, and in that book, it is called the “New Algonquin” cocktail. The Third recipe is from the 1951 book “Bottoms Up” by Ted Saucier. That recipe uses rum, blackberry brandy, benedictine, and lime juice. Ted Saucier, the lead publicist and historian for the Waldorf-Astoria after Crockett left, cites his recipe as the recipe used at the Algonquin Hotel. Saucier knew his stuff and is a very reputable source. He replaced Albert Crockett (The guy who wrote the Old Waldorf-Astoria Bar Book), and his book is notable for having the first Negroni recipe, saving the Last Word recipe, and along with Embury, accurately documenting post-prohibition New York cocktail culture.

Interest in the Algonquin stems from being the weekly meeting place for a group of influential New York authors during prohibition. The Algonquin Round Table, as the group became known, was made up of newspaper and magazine columnists, playwrights, actors, comedians, screenwriters, directors, and editors for major magazines. Needless to say, the group was very influential on the literary and art scene of the time.

People in the cocktail world are curious to know what this group drank, and the most common recipe used for the Algonquin cocktail is the New Algonquin recipe from the Fougner book. I personally don’t think this was the recipe used by the hotel and enjoyed by the members of the Algonquin Round Table. In fact, I don’t think this group ever actually enjoyed an alcoholic beverage there ever. The hotel owner and head manager, Frank Case, was a firm and vocal supporter of prohibition. Frank Case voted dry and voluntarily stopped serving alcohol at the Algonquin in 1917. Three years before the start of prohibition. The group met for ten years, beginning in 1919, and eventually stopped around 1929, four years before the end of prohibition. It’s doubtful this group ever had a cocktail there.

Algonquin is also not a unique word or name. Algonquin is the name of the indigenous people who occupied most of the North American northeast. The term Algonquin is everywhere. There are towns, lakes, gas stations, bars, restaurants, barbershops, etc., named Algonquin. It doesn’t mean much if the recipe from “Along the Wine Trail” and the hotel share the same name if the name is common. Fougner also never states that the recipe is from the hotel. It’s just called the “New Algonquin.” The only recipe of the three cited as the Algonquin hotel’s recipe is the Saucier one. Frank Case ran the Algonquin till his death in 1946. Considering Ted Saucier’s proximity to the New York drinking culture and hotel industry, the fact he was a skilled publicist and New York historian, and that he cites his explicitly as the hotel’s recipe, I imagine his was the authentic recipe used at the Algonquin Hotel after prohibition.

Again because the hotel was most likely genuinely dry, I doubt the famed Algonquin Round Table even had Saucier’s recipe. Regardless of wheater the New Algonquin cocktail from G. Selmer Fougner’s book is the authentic hotel recipe or not, it’s still a good drink that’s worth trying.

So if they couldn’t drink, why would this group of young artists and writers choose the Algonquin to meet? While a staunch dry, Frank Case was very supportive of the arts and especially authors. The group got to eat for free at their meetings, and visiting published authors got to stay at the hotel for free too. Frank Case went out of his way to accommodate the group, and the Algonquin continues Case’s support for authors today by providing published authors with a free or reduced stay at the hotel in exchange for a signed copy of their book.

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Ideal Cocktail – 1930s Cuban Recipe

Ideal Cocktail Sloppy Joe
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Ideal Cocktail – Sloppy Joe’s Recipe

0 from 0 votes Only logged in users can rate recipes
Course: DrinksCuisine: Cuban
Servings

1

servings
Calories

239

kcal
ABV

23%

Total time

3

minutes

Learn how to make an Ideal Cocktail

Ingredients

  • 1 tsp 1 Simple Syrup

  • 1 oz 1 Grapefruit Juice

  • 2 oz 2 Dry Gin

  • 1 oz 1 Dry Vermouth

Directions

  • Technique: Saxe Soda Shake
  • Combine all ingredients into a cocktail shaker.
  • Add one medium or two small ice cubes to the cocktail shaker and shake until the ice fully melts.
  • Without a strainer, pour the chilled and aerated drink into a glass.

Notes

Featured Video

The Many Variations Of The Ideal Cocktail.

The Ideal cocktail was invented by Hugo Ensslin and is printed in his 1917 Book “Recipes for Mixed Drinks.” The ideal cocktail is a grapefruit variation of the martini, and you can see that in the way the cocktail changed over time. As Hugo saw it, a classic martini was what we would consider today to be a sweet martini. It is made of gin and sweet vermouth. During this time and more so into the 1930s, the dry martini becomes far more popular. Modifying Hugo’s original version based on the sweet martini, Jose Abeal (owner of Sloppy Joe’s) substituted sweet vermouth for dry vermouth (like the dry martini) but made up for the sweetness with a little bit of simple syrup. Grapefruit, dry vermouth, and dry gin are a bit much, and the drink needs a little sweetness to taste good. A clean and herbal grapefruit martini is more suited for a warm tropical climate.

The History Of Sloppy Joes Cuban Bar.

There are two famous pre-revolution Cuban bars. Well, there are at least two famous pre-revolution Cuban bars that printed books and provided future generations with their recipes—Bar La Florida and Sloppy Joe’s Bar, both in Havana, Cuba. Sloppy Joe’s was created by Spanish immigrant Jose Abeal. The 1936 edition of his book details his biography. Jose immigrated from Spain to Cuba in 1904, where he worked as a bartender for three years. He then moved to New Orleans, where he worked as a bartender for another six years, and then to Miami, where he worked for another six years. Upon moving back in 1918 to Cuba, he opened a liquor store and added a bar. When a few of his American friends visited, they commented on how dirty his store was. “Why, Joe, this place is certainly sloppy, look at the filthy water running from under the counter.” They were commenting on how he let the melted ice run all over the ground. His friends would call him dirty or sloppy Joe, and the name stuck. Jose sold classic American and Cuban drinks from his liquor store and bar and Spanish and Cuban food. One of the most popular food items he sold was a traditional Spanish picadillo sandwich. A loose ground beef sandwich where the beef is cooked with crushed tomatoes, Spanish olives, spices, and herbs became more commonly known as a sloppy Joe in the United States. Although Sloppy Joe’s Picadillo sandwich is nothing like the midwestern BBQ sauce covered, Manwich style sloppy joes most of us are used to.

A political revolution later, and Sloppy Joe’s fell on hard times. Now owned by the state and American tourists prohibited from visiting, Sloppy Joe only stayed open for a couple more years. The 1959 movie “Our Man In Havana,” starting Sir Alec Guinness, features some of Sloppy Joe’s in its prime before its business dried up. After a fire in 1965, the bar and store closed entirely with no real intention to ever open again. In 2013 though, the bar was restored, where it was, as it was, and currently sells the same drinks and food items as it did in the 1930s – 1950s.

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Poets Dream – Classic Recipe & History

Poets Dream
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Poets Dream

0 from 0 votes Only logged in users can rate recipes
Course: DrinksCuisine: British
Servings

1

servings
Calories

115

kcal
ABV

29%

Total time

3

minutes

Learn how to make a Poet’s Dream

Ingredients

  • 1 dashes 1 Orange Bitters

  • 2 dashes 2 Benedictine

  • 1 oz 1 Dry Vermouth

  • 2 oz 2 Dry Gin

Directions

  • Technique: Simple Stir
  • Combine all ingredients in the mixing glass.
  • Add ice to the mixing glass.
  • Stir the ingredients for 10 – 15 seconds. Try to avoid over-diluting the drink.
  • Strain into a glass.

Notes

Featured Video

What Does The Poet’s Dream Taste Like?

The Poet’s Dream taste like a slightly more herbal dry martini. A little less boozy but more complex with a small amount of benedictine and orange bitters. My suggestion is to serve this as cold as possible, stir maybe a couple of seconds more than usual and go easy on the orange bitters. A dash too much on the bitters becomes the overwhelming flavor. Like the dry martini, this is a hard drink to make. Not because it is complex but because it is so subtle and unforgiving if you don’t get it right. This drink can be excellent if done right, and the flavors are kept in check when measuring and stirring. But it can also be pungent if you get a little heavy-handed on the bitters. It’s easier to start small on this and gauge the taste, adding a little more of the benedictine and bitters as you continue making more.

William Tarling’s Cafe Royal Book And Its Influences.

Cafe Royal is massive. I can’t find exactly how many recipes are actually in this book, and I’m not going to count, but my best guess is around 1200. William Tarling did not create most of the recipes in Cafe Royal; he was the president of the UKBG (United Kingdom Bartenders Guild) and head bartender of the Cafe Royal in London. He instead compiled some of his own bars’ top recipes and the recipes of other UKBG into a single source. In his introduction, he says he combed through more than 4000 recipes to find the best and most original ones from around England. This book is a monster, and sadly ordinary folks like you and me will probably never own it. Sure there are limited reprints from time to time, but there were only 1000 original copies made in its single 1937 edition. The book was created and sold as a fundraising item for the UKBG healthcare benefit and Cafe Royal sports club. Healthcare didn’t become universal till 1948 in the UK. We’re still waiting here in the US.

William Tarling was known for experimenting with new ingredients. He positioned the Cafe Royal Bar as more edgy and experimental in its recipes compared to other more traditional bars like The American Bar at the Savoy Hotel. Cafe Royal was an early pioneer in Tequila, mezcal, and vodka cocktails mixed with exotic fruit juices. Tequila and Vodka cocktails don’t start becoming more common till the 1940s with the Moscow mule and the margarita. It’s easy to argue that the margarita was invented at the Cafe Royal in the early 1930s as their picador cocktail. In the book’s preface, William Tarling argues that there needs to be more originality and variety. Martinis and Manhattans are great but just as one tires of eating the same dinner night after night; it’s monotonous to drink the same drinks at every party. Have some fun and try channeling your inner William and try something you wouldn’t normally drink.

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Martini (Medium) – Classic Recipe & History

Martini Medium
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Martini (Medium)

0 from 0 votes Only logged in users can rate recipes
Course: DrinksCuisine: American
Servings

1

servings
Calories

163

kcal
ABV

29%

Total time

3

minutes

Learn how to make a classic medium/perfect martini

Ingredients

  • 2/3 oz 2/3 Dry Vermouth

  • 2/3 oz 2/3 Sweet Vermouth

  • 1.5 oz 1.5 Dry Gin

Directions

  • Technique: Simple Stir
  • Combine all ingredients in the mixing glass.
  • Add ice to the mixing glass.
  • Stir the ingredients for 10 – 15 seconds. Try to avoid over-diluting the drink.
  • Strain into a glass. Express a lemon peel over the drink and discard the peel.
  • Garnish:
  • Spanish olive.

Notes

Featured Video

The Medium Martini, Also Known As The Perfect Martini.

The last of the three main martinis, the medium martini, is perfect and combines the flavors of both the sweet and dry martini. The oldest printed martini recipe I could find is in the 1888 edition of Harry Johnson’s New and Improved Bartender’s Manual. His original 1882 edition does not provide a recipe for the Martini. The original martini recipe appears between the late 1880s and 1890s and is essentially a pre-prohibition style Manhattan with Old Tom Gin instead of whiskey. Harry Johnson’s recipe is half Old Tom Gin, half sweet vermouth, a dash of orange liqueur, two Boker’s (cardamom) bitters, and two dashes of gum syrup. If you look at my original pre-prohibition style Manhattan recipe, they are almost the same, save for the Old Tom Gin. But the recipe begins to change over the next decade until it settles on the more generally accepted 2 oz Old Tom, 1 oz sweet vermouth, and a dash of orange bitters with an expressed lemon peel. This was the standard martini until the 1910s, when the martini’s dry variation was invented and became very popular. The original martini becomes known as a sweet martini, and a medium sweet version that combines the two is also made.

Now while most bartenders from the 1910s through to prohibition know of the sweet and dry martini (Not all, though, even books like Hoffman house from 1912 and Jack’s Manual from 1916 only have the sweet martini), not all seemed to do medium martinis. Hugo Ensslin’s 1917 book Recipes for Mixed Drinks only list the sweet and dry versions. It’s not till the mid-1920s that you start to see the medium martini recipe being printed—beginning in 1925, books like L’art du Shaker by Dominique Bristol first published a martini named the medium martini. The recipe for the medium martini is precisely the same regardless of the book. 1/2 dry gin, 1/4 dry vermouth, 1/4 sweet vermouth, and most do not have a garnish for this drink. The exception to this is the Waldorf-Astoria’s recipe which has an expressed lemon peel and Spanish olive like the dry martini.

I chose to go with the Waldorf-Astoria recipe because I like the lemon oil and olive as a garnish. I think it makes the drink better. If you ignore the garnish, the recipe for this cocktail is the same from 1920 to the 1970s (I don’t own a cocktail recipe book from the 1980s). Somewhere after the 1970s, this started to be called a perfect martini. I can’t find exactly when or by who, but the name perfect martini is standard today for a medium martini. For all 3 of my martini recipes, I chose to go with the Savoy naming structure for martinis because it is the most straightforward and concise.

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Double Barrel – Original Recipe & History

Double Barrel
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Double Barrel

0 from 0 votes Only logged in users can rate recipes
Course: DrinksCuisine: American
Servings

1

servings
Calories

152

kcal
ABV

25%

Total time

3

minutes

Learn how to make a Double Barrel

Ingredients

  • 2 dashes 2 Angostura Bitters

  • 2 dashes 2 Orange Bitters

  • 1 oz 1 Sweet Vermouth

  • 1 oz 1 Dry Vermouth

  • 1 oz 1 Rye Whiskey

Directions

  • Technique: Simple Stir
  • Combine all ingredients in the mixing glass.
  • Add ice to the mixing glass.
  • Stir the ingredients for 10 – 15 seconds. Try to avoid over-diluting the drink.
  • Strain into a glass.
  • Garnish:
  • Maraschino cherries.

Notes

Featured Video

The Mighty Double Barrel Cocktail.

While not as alcoholic as a manhattan, it has much more flavor. For this cocktail, George Kappeler just put it all together. Both sweet and dry vermouth and both orange and angostura bitters. The recipe calls for just whiskey, but with all the herbal flavors in this cocktail, the spiciness of rye mixes well. Sadly this drink didn’t have much of a life outside of George Kappeler’s books and is absent from most any other book after. Give the Double Barrel a shot if you’re looking for a fantastic drink that was forgotten by time.

George Kappeler And The New York Holland House Hotel.

Like the Waldorf-Astoria, the Holland House Hotel in New York had one of the best bars in the country. Interestingly both hotels were right down the street from each other, Holland House on 30th and 5th, and the Waldorf-Astoria on 34th and 5th, the present-day location of the Empire State Building. Opened December 7th, 1891, the interior of the Holland house was considered its prized jewel. The New York Times in 1891 praised its beautiful carved marble interiors, ornate rooms, and mosaic floors and described the hotel as a marvel of bronze, marble, and glass work. Managing the hotel’s cafe and restaurant Bar was one of the top bartenders in the New York George Kappeler. He’s credited with inventing many famous cocktails, a few still popular today, and was the first to describe a classic whiskey cocktail as old-fashioned. He used the term old-fashioned to differentiate it from his other fancy and standard whiskey cocktails. George published his first cocktail book in 1895 and an updated second edition in 1906.

The good times did not last, though, and by the mid-1910s, most of the wealthy New York clients moved further north to park avenue, and the hotel started to fall on hard times. With the passing of the 18th amendment and the Volstead Act on January 17th, 1920, the hotel’s few remaining revenue streams dried up, and the hotel was sold. The Holland house closed that same year and was converted to an office building. The interior was gutted to make room for office spaces, and like the Waldorf-Astoria, a vital piece of American cocktail history was lost. Although, unlike the Waldorf-Astoria, the building is still standing on 30th and 5th next to Marble Collegiate Church. The grand interior is long gone, but it’s still fun to see the façade of the once-great Holland House.

Using The Right Ingredients.

Vermouth is always essential and worth sending a little more to get a quality product, but your whiskey will have the most significant impact on this cocktail. George Kappeler only wrote to use whiskey, but I feel a nice spicy rye whiskey with a bit of burn works well here. Bourbon is good, but it is too sweet and gets lost in the mix. The strong herbal wine flavors of the vermouth, the earthy angostura bitters, and citrusy orange bitters are better balanced by spicy rye. Also, since it’s only 1 ounce of whiskey, it needs to be stronger and have some burn to offset the 2 ounces of vermouth.

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Chrysanthemum – Classic Recipe & History

Chrysanthemum
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Chrysanthemum

0 from 0 votes Only logged in users can rate recipes
Course: DrinksCuisine: British
Servings

1

servings
Calories

155

kcal
ABV

26%

Total time

3

minutes

Learn how to make a Chrysanthemum.

Ingredients

  • 3 dashes 3 Absinthe

  • 1 oz 1 Benedictine

  • 2 oz 2 Dry Vermouth

Directions

  • Technique: Simple Stir
  • Combine all ingredients in the mixing glass.
  • Add ice to the mixing glass.
  • Stir the ingredients for 10 – 15 seconds. Try to avoid over-diluting the drink.
  • Strain into a glass.
  • Garnish:
  • Lemon peel

Notes

Featured Video

What Does The Chrysanthemum Taste Like?

From The 1934 Savoy Cocktail Book, The Chrysanthemum is a beautiful example of the kind of cocktails invented in Europe during American Prohibition. With heavier use of European liqueurs and favoring more complex herbal flavors over the more American spirit-forward cocktails, the Chrysanthemum is a beautiful, herbal, bright, and both lightly sweet and dry cocktail. If you are looking for something new that will become one of your favorites, try the Chrysanthemum. This is not an exaggeration. The taste of this cocktail blew my mind. It’s that good.

A Short History Of The American Bar at the Savoy Hotel In London.

In 1893, The American Bar at the Savoy hotel started serving American-style cocktails in London to the British upper class. The American Bar has always been a high-end bar but what set it on the map was when Harry Craddock became its head bartender in the 1920s. Harry Craddock was a British-born bartender who immigrated to the United States, eventually becoming a US citizen and head bartender of several high-end hotel bars. Still, Harry found himself out of work with the start of prohibition in 1920. He then immigrated back to England and became head bartender of the Savoy Hotel’s Bar. Harry transformed The American Bar from a high-end bar to one of the seminal cocktail bars of the 20th century. As the American prohibition ended, the hotel realized it should record all of its most famous recipes and the innovations Harry brought to the bar. A year later, they published the Savoy Cocktail Book. Printed in 1934, the Savoy Cocktail Book documents the bar’s best recipes from the 1890s to the 1930s and stands as the pillar of prohibition-era European cocktail innovation. If Jerry Thomas’s Bartenders Guide is the best cocktail book the 1800s gave us, then The Savoy Cocktail Book is the best cocktail book of the first half of the 1900s. I don’t think I will ever be able to drink there, though. A cocktail cost around $250 there, and they have one that’s almost $1000, and I’m not the Amazon guy, so good thing we have their recipe book.

The Garnish Is Absolutely Important

The most essential ingredient in the Chrysanthemum is the expressed orange peel garnish. There is only one Benedictine so that easy and good dry vermouth is also necessary, but the subtle flavor the orange oil adds makes this a fantastic drink. The garnish is rarely what makes a drink, but with the Chrysanthemum’s case, it’s essential. If you do not have an orange for the peel, orange bitters work well. I think it tastes better with a dash of orange bitters instead, but an expressed orange peel is traditional.

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Vodka Martini – Original Recipe & History

Vodka Martini
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Vodka Martini

0 from 0 votes Only logged in users can rate recipes
Course: DrinksCuisine: American
Servings

1

servings
Calories

186

kcal
ABV

32%

Total time

3

minutes

Learn how to make the a classic Vodka Martini.

Ingredients

  • 1 oz 1 Dry Vermouth

  • 2 oz 2 Vodka

Directions

  • Technique: Simple Stir
  • Combine all ingredients in the mixing glass.
  • Add ice to the mixing glass.
  • Stir the ingredients for 10 – 15 seconds. Try to avoid over-diluting the drink.
  • Strain into a glass.
  • Garnish:
  • Lemon peel

Notes

Featured Video

The Rise Of Vodka Cocktails in the 1940s.

Vodka cocktails were almost nonexistent and not popular till the 1940s. Except for the Bloody Mary, I can’t think of a single cocktail that contained vodka before the 1940s. What happened in the 1940s to change that? The Moscow Mule was invented in 1941, and its overnight success suddenly made vodka a popular spirit. Most classic vodka cocktails can be traced back to this period. Since Vodka had no history of being used as an ingredient, bartenders found it easy to replace gin with vodka and give the drink a fun new name. The screwdriver was just an orange blossom with vodka. The vodka Martini was just a martini with vodka, and a drink called the Russian Bear (most likely origin of the White Russian) was just an Alexander with vodka instead of gin, and the list goes on.

In David Embury’s 1948 book “The Fine Art Of Mixing,” he states he has no idea why anyone would want to replace gin for vodka as it is a flavorless dull spirit that adds nothing to a drink. He compared mixing with vodka to mixing with water. Lucius Beebe’s 1946 book “The Stork Club Bar Book” is less judgmental of vodka cocktails but also claims most vodka cocktails are just modified gin cocktails. Beebe provides two vodka martini recipes which are garnished and served identical to a standard dry martini. This is Beebe’s Vodka Martini #1 recipe that follows the same 1:2 ratio of dry vermouth to dry gin as a traditional dry martini.

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Scoff-Law | Original Recipe & History

Scofflaw Cocktail
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Scoff-law

0 from 0 votes Only logged in users can rate recipes
Course: DrinksCuisine: French
Servings

1

servings
Calories

244

kcal
ABV

22%

Total time

3

minutes

Learn how to make a classic Scoff-law Cocktail.

Ingredients

  • 1/2 oz 1/2 Lemon Juice

  • 1/2 oz 1/2 Grenadine

  • 1 dash 1 Orange Bitters

  • 1 oz 1 Dry Vermouth

  • 1 oz 1 Rye Whiskey

Directions

  • Technique: Saxe Soda Shake
  • Combine all ingredients into a cocktail shaker.
  • Add one medium or two small ice cubes to the cocktail shaker and shake until the ice fully melts.
  • Without a strainer, pour the chilled and aerated drink into a glass.

Notes

Featured Video

History Of The Scoff-Law

The earliest recipe for the Scoff-Law (or just Scofflaw) I can find comes from the 1927 book “Barflies and Cocktails” by Harry McElhone. McElhone credits a bartender named Jock at Harry’s New York Bar in Paris for inventing the drink. The cocktail was named after the prohibition term “Scoff-Law,” which at the time meant anyone who illegally drank—ignoring the laws against alcohol consumption. The term is still used today to indicate someone who scoffs at the laws and intentionally breaks them. The book Barflies and Cocktails cited an article from the Chicago Tribune on January 27, 1924.

“Hardly has Boston added to the Gaiety of Nations by adding to Webster’s Dictionary the opprobrious term of “scoff-law” to indicate the chap who indicts the bootlegger, when Paris comes back with a “wet answer” — Jock, the genial bartender of Harry’s New York Bar, yesterday invented the Scoff-law Cocktail, and it has already become exceedingly popular among American prohibition dodgers.”

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Satan’s Whiskers – Original Recipe

Satan's Whiskers Cocktail
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Satan’s Whiskers

0 from 0 votes Only logged in users can rate recipes
Course: DrinksCuisine: British
Servings

1

servings
Calories

229

kcal
ABV

20%

Total time

3

minutes

Learn how to make the a classic Satan’s Whiskers.

Ingredients

  • 1 dash 1 Orange Bitters

  • 1 oz 1 Orange Juice

  • 1 oz 1 Dry Vermouth

  • 1 oz 1 Sweet Vermouth

  • 1/2 oz 1/2 Orange Liqueur

  • 1 oz 1 Dry Gin

Directions

  • Technique: Saxe Soda Shake
  • Combine all ingredients into a cocktail shaker.
  • Add one medium or two small ice cubes to the cocktail shaker and shake until the ice fully melts.
  • Without a strainer, pour the chilled and aerated drink into a glass.

Notes

Featured Video

What Does The Satan’s Whiskers Taste Like?

This is a very herbal and orange-flavored cocktail. It’s good, but it reminds me of a solid and herbal screwdriver or calvados cocktails. So if that sounds good to you, then the satan’s whiskers is right up your alley.

A Short History Of The American Bar at the Savoy Hotel In London.

Opened in 1893 The American Bar at the Savoy hotel started serving American style cocktails in London to the British upperclass. The American Bar has always been a high end bar but what really set it on the map was when Harry CraddoIn 1893, The American Bar at the Savoy hotel started serving American-style cocktails in London to the British upper class. The American Bar has always been a high-end bar but what set it on the map was when Harry Craddock became its head bartender in the 1920s. Harry Craddock was a British-born bartender who immigrated to the United States, eventually becoming a US citizen and head bartender of several high-end hotel bars. Still, Harry found himself out of work with the start of prohibition in 1920. He then immigrated back to England and became head bartender of the Savoy Hotel’s Bar. Harry transformed The American Bar from a high-end bar to one of the seminal cocktail bars of the 20th century. As the American prohibition was ending, the hotel realized it should record all of its most famous recipes and the innovations Harry brought to the bar. A year later, they published the Savoy Cocktail Book. Printed in 1934, the Savoy Cocktail Book documents the bar’s best recipes from the 1890s to the 1930s and stands as the pillar of prohibition-era European cocktail innovation. If Jerry Thomas’s Bartenders Guide is the best cocktail book the 1800s gave us, then The Savoy Cocktail Book is the best cocktail book of the first half of the 1900s. I don’t think I will ever be able to drink there, though. A cocktail cost around $250 there, and they have one that’s almost $1000, and I’m not the Amazon guy, so good thing we have their recipe book. ck became it’s head bartender in the 1920s. Harry Craddock was a British born bartender who immigrated to the United States, eventually becoming a US citizen and head bartender of several high end hotel bars, but Harry found himself out of work with the start of prohibition in 1920. He then immigrated back to England and became head bartender of the Savoy Hotel’s Bar. Harry transformed The American Bar from a high end bar to one of the seminal cocktail bars of the 20th century. As the american prohibition was coming to an end the hotel realized it should record all of its most famous recipes and the innovations Harry brought to the bar and a year later they published the Savoy Cocktail Book. Printed in 1934 The Savoy Cocktail Book documents all of the bars best recipes from the 1890s to the 1930s and stands as the pillar of prohibition-era, European cocktail innovation. If Jerry Thomas’s Bartenders Guide is the best cocktail book the 1800s gave us, then The Savoy Cocktail Book is the best cocktail book of the first half of the 1900s. I don’t think I will ever be able to drink there though. A cocktail cost around $250 there and they have one that’s almost $1000, and I’m not the Amazon guy, so good thing we have their recipe book.

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