Once in a while, or maybe every day or two, I grab an old cocktail book off the my bookshelf (old to me usually means something from 1827 to maybe 1938) and try a recipe. Yesterday I was looking at Burke's Complete Cocktail & Tastybite Recipes (1936). The Bijou Cocktail caught my eye. Burke's recipe is: 1 Plymouth Gin 1 Italian Vermouth 1 Green Chartreuse Orange Bitters, 1 Dash Ice.-Stir from bottom. 1 Olive 1 Dash Lemon Juice Strain into Cocktail Glass (I used M&R Vermouth and Bitter Truth Orange Bitters) Unlike other Bijou recipes (let's say the Savoy from 1930 and Jack's Manual from 1908), the olive in Burke's recipe is not optional. There is no mention of using a cherry instead. As I was making the drink, I was planning on leaving out the olive. It just sounded odd with this concoction. Then I read the warning in Burke's introduction, "There are lurking devils of confusion at hand ever ready to confound carelessness." I am not sure if leaving out the olive would be considered "carelessness", but I was not taking any chances! In the end, the olive was fantastic in the Bijou. It added a subtle salty flavor and helped make the drink well-rounded. Please, don't skip the olive! For the record, I used cheap Goya olives. Actually, in the second drink, I used a jalapeno stuffed olive from Trader Joe's (not really very spicy). It also worked well, but with the Bijou it is probably best to stop at one drink. Well, finally, here is the question: Are there other OLD classic cocktails out there that have a seemingly out-of-place ingredient that actually work well? I remember the first time I had very old balsamic vinegar on strawberries. It was not a combination that I was not looking forward to tasting, but it was delicious. As it turns out, balsamic and strawberries is a classic combination. Are there cocktail equivalents?
