The Hersch

Me too. My back-ordered Fee Brothers Lemon Bitters just arrived today from Surfas. What am I going to do with them? I'm pretty sure they'd be a nice addition to an Aviation cocktail.

I just can't see why this would bother anybody: (from the Wikipedia article linked above)

What are the ingredients in that cocktail? ← See my post here about it. I currently have no idea where I got the recipe, but it's really good. The two different cherry liqueurs play off of each other nicely. And see my post here taking credit. I'm so pleased that someone has made my cocktail and actually likes it!

I am the source. I posted this invention of mine in the "Post Your New Cocktail Creations Here" thread here on January 29th, 2007. How soon they forget! I had shortly before picked up a bottle of Cherry Heering (which doesn't seem to be its official name anymore) on a whim, and came up with the cocktail above as a use for it. My formula specifies Luxardo maraschino, although I imagine Maraska would be fine as well. I haven't been able to find that brand in the Washington area, where I live (and it's hard enough finding the Luxardo)."Tarleton's Resurrection" is the name of a beautiful lute air by John Dowland, the 16th-century English lutenist. Dick Tarleton was an enormously popular clown and comic actor, who died in 1588. "Tarleton's Resurrection" was written as a tribute after his death. I'm not sure what prompted the connection with that title and my cocktail creation, but once I named it, it seemed like a good name.

Kurt, I guess I was thinking Angostura or Orange. But now that you mention it, Peychaud might be pretty nice. Anise and Orange are flavors I like a lot together. ← How about Stirrings' blood orange bitters?

Well, you can't copyright a name or title. The Roosevelt Hotel may have asserted a trademark, but I really doubt they could make such a claim hold up. Maybe in 1951 they could have, but I doubt it. Not that I'm an expert on trademark law.

This may astonish some, but a single word often has more than one meaning. "Arugula" has unfortunately become American English, but "rocket" is still a perfectly usable word for the salad green. Our English cousins manage to use the word in both the blast-off and the salad sense, without becoming hopelessly confused. "Arugula" isn't even proper Italian; why should we accept it as good English?The h-less pronunciation of "herb" is also unfortunate, sort of like pronouncing "humble" without the h. How that pronunciation of "herb" caught on is a mystery to me. "Coriander" in current American speech generally means only the seed of the plant; this was not always so. "Coriander leaf" would be unambiguous. Lamb's lettuce, or mache, has become widely available in the US only in the last few years, but mostly only at fancy-schmancy places like Whole Foods, or in restaurants.

The amount of pimiento paste used in these is quite small, not enough to make them taste hot, just to give them a little vibrancy. But you should definitely make them; they're really easy. Desalt the salt cod (soak in water, change every 8-12 hours, for a day or two). Poach the cod in water for a few minutes, keeping the water below the simmer. Shred or chop the fish, mix with sauteed chopped onion, chopped parsley, mashed potatoes, raw egg, salt & pepper, a bit of pimiento paste if you have some or a small dash of Tabasco or other hot pepper sauce. I find it easier to form the balls if you refrigerate this mixture for 45 minutes or an hour. Then shape using two spoons into football shapes and drop into hot, deep oil. Fry until golden brown, about 3 or 4 minutes, and drain on paper towels. Some recipes call for coating in bread crumbs before frying, but I think they're much better (and more typical) without that.

In my observation, bolinhos de bacalhau are made with cooked, mashed potatoes, not shredded. They also usually contain parsley and a little pimiento paste, an ingredient difficult to obtain in the US unless you make it. Form into sort of football shapes and deep-fry. It was definitely my favorite bar snack with a beer when I lived in Portugal.

In the US, it is unfortunately being called by its french name mâche more and more. This is part of a seeming trend to call things which have perfectly serviceable English names by foreign ones. Other examples: arugula (rocket), cilantro (coriander). Anyway, this particular leafy green has a whole raft of English-language names: Lamb's lettuce, lamb's tongue, field salad, field lettuce, corn salad.

Wow. Cool. Definitely not in my copy.

Perhaps you missed where jazzyjeff said: From the Abebooks listing: This refers to the 1930 Constable edition. Presumably this copy does not have the "Additional Cocktails" section present in my 1930 Constable copy.

Thanks for your observations. My copy does not have the Booth's advert pages. I don't think it has the stamp you mention, but I don't have it in front of me, so I can't swear to that. But I'd certainly have noticed a two-page advertisement. So I can answer your question about all British copies with a "no".

After reading the above and other posts in this thread regarding the contents of different editions of the Savoy book, I'm completely puzzled as to what edition it is that I recently acquired, which I thought was a first. The (not numbered) page 25 of my book has a "Bacardi Special Cocktail" but no Bacardi Cocktail, and certainly no paste-in. But my copy doesn't have a "New and Additional Cocktails" section, it has a section headed simply "Additional Cocktails", which has only nine entries on two pages, the very first of them being the Bacardi Cocktail. It doesn't include a bunch of the other cocktails mentioned as being in the "New and Additional" section. Interestingly, the "Additional Cocktails" section of my copy is not listed in the volume's table of contents, which lists "Concluding Remarks" on page 280, and "Blank Pages for Additions" on page 282, which is where "Additional Cocktails" actually is, while the blank pages begin on page 284. The title page (there is no separate copyright page) reads, at the bottom, "LONDON:/CONSTABLE & COMPANY, LTD./1930" (slashes indicating line breaks). Is my copy perhaps a first edition, second state? Were two extra pages printed and bound in with the original pages, replacing two of the lined "blank" pages?I hope the obsessiveness of my interest in this (I'm a book collector in a small way as well as a cocktail enthusiast) will fit right in in this obsessive thread.

Actually, I see this is very like the "Tarleton's Resurrection" that I just posted. (I tried my formula with lime juice but found lemon juice worked much better.) I'm unfamiliar with Ginja...is it anything like Cherry Heering? And does this drink have a name?

Tarleton's Resurrection 4 parts gin 2 parts lemon juice 2 parts Cherry Heering 1 part Luxardo Maraschino appropriately generous dashes Regan's orange bitters Shake with ice; strain into chilled cocktail glass This is seriously good. ETA: Looks really gorgeous too.

That's very peculiar. The .375L of Veuve is $12.97, the .750L is $32.97!

But it's illegal to import it, isn't it?

The Spice House has an online store, but for some reason no porcini are to be found there. I've had good experiences ordering stuff from Di Bruno Brothers, chefshop, Earthy Delights, D'Italia. I'm too lazy to paste in all the links, but you can find them easily enough. I did a quick Froogle search and came up with this. I can't vouch for this outfit, but they certainly have some pretty attractive prices. A whole pound of what look to be very nice dried porcini for only $32. I see a lot of frozen porcini in the results from my Froogle search. Has anyone used them? Are they any good? This place has a pound of frozen porcini for $18.90. I didn't look at the shipping costs though.

I meant to respond to this earlier. These pickled onions sound very good, but not what I would want in a cocktail. I think fish sauce would sort of obliterate the gin, although I love fish sauce in general. How are these used in the cuisine of your province? As a condiment or relish with a meal? As snacks? I'm assuming not in cocktails. You don't specify the type of onion--little pearl onions like the ones used for cocktail onions in the US, or larger?

Okay, I've made the cocktail onions and I'm very happy . I used the first recipe on the page that Gifted Gourmet linked to, above, although I left out most of the ingredients. I used the general procedure, though. The recipe calls for putting the onions in a bowl and pouring boiling water over them; I boiled water in a large saucepan and dumped the onions in, then drained them in a colander. The recipe calls for cutting off the "root end"; I think the author really meant to say the stem end, which is what I cut off when peeling the onions. This is the only part of the whole process that's any work to speak of. Then I prepared the pickling brine. The recipe calls for 1/2 cup sherry vinegar or white vinegar plus 1/2 cup of cider vinegar. I think it would make more sense to call for 1/2 cup sherry or cider vinegar, plus a 1/2 cup of white. Regardless, I intended to use all distilled white vinegar, because of its straightforward, clean character (it's what I always use in bread-and-butter pickles). However, when I went to the cupboard it was nearly bare of distilled vinegar, and what little I had I needed to reserve for dog-related purposes. I decided to use all white-wine vinegar. The recipe calls for a total of 1 cup of vinegar and 1/2 cup of water. I used a bit less water. The recipe calls for a 1/2 cup of salt, which seemed like way too much; I used about 1/4 cup, and at first thought that was still too salty. It turned out to be perfect. I emphatically left out the sugar. In fact, I left out all the other ingredients except the juniper berries and the mustard seed (I used brown). I brought the pickling brine to a boil, added the onions, brought it back to the boil, and turned off the heat. When the whole thing had cooled off a bit, I poured it all into a jar and put it in the fridge. A little while later, I tasted one, and I was really disappointed. It just seemed really tired and limp, not acid enough and a little too salty. That was last night. This evening I came home from the office and made myself a Gibson, skewering one of my home-made cocktail onions on one of these beautiful silver cocktail picks I bought the other week on the Web. After a few gulps of the cocktail, I popped the onion in my mouth. Nirvana! Its 20 hours or so in the fridge made all the difference. It was pleasantly crisp without being tough, nicely acidic, not too salty, just perfect! The only thing I'd do differently next time is boil the pickling brine for a few minutes before adding the onions, in order to bring out more of the flavor of the juniper and mustard, which is sort of missing in action here. But the onions are still terrific. Sorry I can show no pictures.

Some day I shall acquire a nice digital camera so that I can take pictures of onions and post them on eGullet, or perhaps on a blog devoted to cocktail garnishes, but that day is some way off, I'm afraid.If you're interested in ready-made cocktail onions that are really very good, I suggest trying Mezzetta Cocktail Onions. They're the best I've ever found, and they even carry them at a local Safeway. Despite the "small, tender" language on the website, they're fairly large for cocktail onions, and what I love about them is that they're crisp without being tough. They're imported all the way from Canada. Some of the cooking suggestions on the website are...well, let's just say I'm not going to try them.

You would not be correct in assuming I was aware of that. But I think that puts me on the right track. I think the basic procedure is what I want, although I'd leave out some of the ingredients, like the sugar, allspice, rosemary, and vermouth. I like the idea of using juniper berries and mustard seeds. I'm iffy on the peppercorns. Maybe I'll experiment with this in the next couple of days and report back. Thanks!

It appears that your supposition is correct. I just found the most wonderful online etymology dictionary (of English) here. It appears that the English leaf is cognate with Old Norse lauf, Old Frisian laf, Dutch (or is it Flemish?) loof, and German Laub. Very cool. Thanks Klary.

Having just bought a bunch of pearl onions the perfect size and shape for cocktail onions, I thought I'd try to transform them into suitable garnishes for Gibson cocktails. But I'm having trouble finding a recipe. Should I just blanch them, peel them, and soak them in a vinegar-water-salt brine for a few days? Should I cook them briefly in the pickling brine? Or perhaps should I steep them in salt for an hour or two, then rinse them and add them to a hot vinegar-water solution? I'm pretty sure I don't want any sugar in the pickle, since the commercial ones I like don't have any. Any advice?