Stomping Through the "Savoy" (2007–2008)

[eje]

“L.G.” Cocktail

1 glass Scotch Whisky. (2 oz Highland Park 12)

1 glass Beer as a chaser. (St. Ambroise Pale Ale, Brasserie McAuslan, Montreal, Quebec, Canada)

Last month's beer club notes describe the St. Ambroise Pale as follows.

The St-Ambroise Pale Ale pours into the glass with a crystal clear copper/amber color. The head is offwhite to beige in color, fairly light and frothy, and leaves a faint lace in the glass as it subsides. The nose shows crisp malt and toasted grains, with a strong citrus/hop note, and even a touch of grassiness. It is medium- to full-bodied on the palate, with pronounced nuttiness, toast, and hints of fruit. The hops are almost entirely missing from the middle of the palate, before returning in the finish with a pleasant bitter note, but very little citrus character.

Not exactly a cocktail, but a very enjoyable beer and a very enjoyable Scotch.

[thirtyoneknots]

“L.G.” Cocktail

1 glass Scotch Whisky. (2 oz Highland Park 12)

1 glass Beer as a chaser.

Not exactly a cocktail, but a very enjoyable beer and a very enjoyable Scotch.

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There's a sick part of me that wants to put this on the cocktail menu, with no explanation other than "hope you like scotch!" and see what happens.

[eje]

Commodore Cocktail

1 Teaspoonful Syrup. (1 teaspoon rich simple syrup)

2 Dashes Orange Bitters. (2 Dashes Regan's Orange Bitters)

The Juice of 1/2 Lime or 1/4 Lemon. (1/4 Lemon)

1 Glass Canadian Club Whisky. (2 oz 40 Creek Barrel Select)

Shake well and strain into cocktail glass.

Oddly, I made this cocktail, and took this picture about a year ago; but as far as I can tell I never posted the drink in the Savoy topic!

Not seeing the picture in the topic, I just remade it. It is a perfectly fine Canadian Whisky Sour. Nothing to get too excited about. A bit light on the citrus, as compared to normal Whiskey Sours. Interesting that they give you the option to use lime.

Maybe next time!

[eje]

Liberty Cocktail

1 Dash Syrup. (1/3 tsp. Depaz Cane Syrup)

1/3 Bacardi Rum. (3/4 oz Montecristo White Rum)

2/3 Apple Jack. (1 1/2 oz Germain-Robin Apple Brandy)

Shake (stir, please) well and strain into cocktail glass. (Rosemary Sprig Garnish.)

OK, Montecristo isn't really a Cuban style white rum. So sue me. If I ever find the El Dorado White, I'll use that instead. Until then, it's the Montecristo.

I guess this is really a sling. Spirits and sugar. Pretty nice, as these sorts of things go.

The rosemary was pure embellishment on my part. I like rosemary and apples. I had some rosemary out for dinner. Needed something for the camera to focus on. Actually it turned out to be a decent scent accent for the cocktail.

[eje]

Lily Cocktail

1 Dash Lemon Juice. (ok, a little much, at one teaspoon)

1/3 Dry Gin. (3/4 oz Beefeater's Gin)

1/3 Kina Lillet. (3/4 oz Cocchi Aperitivo Americano)

1/3 Crème de Noyau. (3/4 oz Luxardo Amaretto di Saschira)

Shake (stir?) well and strain into cocktail glass.

I still have a dream that I will one day run across Noyau de Poissy, but until then I'm using the Luxardo Amaretto where Crème de Noyau is called for.

No great news on the Cocchi Americano front. I got a note from a Corti Bros representative confirming the label rumor I had heard before. He said the producer wants to bring it back into the states again, and is working on re-doing the label. However, they have no idea how long it will take to get the new label past the TTB and new stock into the states.

The Lily is on the sweet side, but I'm surprised to admit I found it a fascinating beverage. The Americano and the Amaretto are a really interesting flavor combination.

Edited July 25, 2008 by eje (log)

[eje]

Charlie Lindbergh Cocktail

2 Dashes Orange Juice. (2/3 tsp Orange Juice)

2 Dashes Pricota. (2/3 tsp Rothman & Winter Orchard Apricot liqueur)

1/2 Kina Lillet. (1 oz Cocchi Americano)

1/2 Plymouth Gin. (1 oz Plymouth Gin)

Shake (stir?) well and serve in cocktail glass. Squeeze lemon peel on top.

I can only assume this is named after Charles Lindbergh, the aviator who flew the first successful non-stop flight between New York and Paris in May of 1927.

The cocktail itself seemed a bit, uh, "girly". Nice enough, and all, but more of the sort of drink you'd buy for that cute girl you are trying to impress, than the sort of thing you'd have as a brace up after crossing the Atlantic.

If you want to play along and don't have Cocchi Americano, I'd again suggest 1 oz dry vermouth, dash angosutura, dash maraschino liqueur, and an orange twist squeezed into the tin. It's pretty close and might even be better in this particular case.

[eje]

Linstead Cocktail

(6 People)

3 Glasses Whisky. (1 1/2 oz Sazerac Straight Rye)

3 Glasses Sweetened Pineapple Juice. (1 1/2 oz Knudsen Pineapple Juice)

Finish off before shaking with a dash of Absinthe Bitters. (dash Gin and Wormwood)

Shake and serve, squeezing a little lemon peel on top of each glass.

Since finding a recipe for "Wormwood Bitters" in Eddie Clarke's "Shaking in the Sixties", I have gone so far as to purchase two wormwood plants, grow them in my community garden plot, and infuse a small amount of gin with a few sprigs from the plants. The resulting substance is indeed very bitter, but not entirely unpleasant.

I didn't have a lot of hope that the Linstead Cocktail would be all that tasty. I mean, Whiskey, Pineapple, and bitters, how could that even be good? But, somehow it actually is. Oddly found myself savoring and puzzling over the flavors in the cocktail. Far more interesting than those three ingredients have any real right to be.

If you don't have your own wormwood plants or don't want to go to the trouble of infusing gin, you could probably substitute "Gorki List" if you've got it around.

Edited July 27, 2008 by eje (log)

[dbrady]

+1 on this one. Very tasty.

Leave It To Me Cocktail (No. 2)

1 Teaspoonful Raspberry Syrup. (1 teaspoon Monin Raspberry Syrup)

1 Teaspoonful Lemon Juice.

1 Dash Maraschino. (1/3 tsp. Luxardo Maraschino)

3/4 Glass Dry Gin. (1 1/2 oz Plymouth Gin)

Shake (stir, please) well and strain into cocktail glass.

Now, we're talking.

This is a lovely cocktail, which definitely could use some revivification.

Admittedly a bit girly, being slightly pink and a bit fruity.  Still it's not pink enough to cause alarm and with enough of a gin punch that I think any male secure in his manhood should have no problem with it.

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[eje]

Little Devil Cocktail

1/6 Lemon Juice. (1/2 of 3/4 oz Lemon Juice)

1/6 Cointreau. (1/2 of 3/4 oz Cointreau)

1/3 Bacardi Rum. (3/4 oz Montecristo White Rum)

1/3 Dry Gin. (3/4 oz North Shore No. 6)

Shake well and strain into cocktail glass.

In Harry McElhone's "Barflies and Cocktails" he sez this recipe comes "from Fitz, Ciro’s Bar, London, my late apt pupil."

A bit similar to the Blue Devil or Bacardi Special, it's not bad. Dry and mostly ginny. The Montecristo White seems to act mostly as an extender to the gin. I have to admit lately, at Cointreau kind of sweetness levels, I do kind of prefer giving a slight advantage to the liqueur lately rather than the lemon. Something like 3/4 oz of Cointreau and 1/2 oz of Lemon would be about right at my sweet spot at this point in my life for this cocktail.

[eje]

Little Princess Cocktail

1/2 Italian Vermouth. (1 oz Carpano Antica)

1/2 Bacardi Rum. (1 oz Montecristo White Rum)

Shake well and strain into cocktail glass.

Similar to the Fair and Warmer or Fluffy Ruffles this is a Rum Manhattan. Or really, Rum Lone Tree. But we'll get to the details of that in a couple cocktails.

This desperately needs something. A rum with more character, bitters, or a twist.

As it is, it tastes like slightly juiced up Carpano Antica. Not a bad thing, but not exactly a cocktail either.

[eje]

London Cocktail

2 Dashes Orange Bitters. (1 dash Fee's, 1 dash Regan's Orange Bitters)

2 Dashes Syrup. (1/3 tsp. Depaz Cane Syrup)

2 Dashes Absinthe. (1/3 tsp. Absinthe Verte de Fougerolles)

1/3 Dry Gin. (3/4... Oh ok, really, it was 1 ounce Junipero Gin)

Shake (stir, please) well and strain into cocktail glass.

I did look in a couple other vintage recipe books for this one, and every one gives the amount of Gin as the same 1/3. To be fair, 3/4 oz isn't an unusual amount of spirits for a Savoy Cocktail. It's just that 3/4 oz of spirits is usually is accompanied by vermouth or some other mixer. I mean this really is just about the Savoy Fourth Degree without the vermouths.

I got out my tiniest glass and did my best to respect the recipe.

Tasty, anyway. Cold Absinthey, orangey, slightly sweetened gin. I think I'll have another!

Edited August 1, 2008 by eje (log)

[eje]

London Buck Cocktail

1 Lump of Ice.

1 Glass Dry Gin. (2 oz No. 209 Gin)

The Juice of 1/2 Lemon.

1 Split of Ginger Ale. (Fever Tree)

Use long tumbler.

As far as I can tell, the term "buck" refers to a drink made with spirits, Lemon, and, generally, ginger ale.

The London Buck is not a mind blowing beverage, but it is perfectly tasty and refreshing.

[eje]

Lone Tree Cocktail

2 Dashes Orange Bitters.

1/3 Italian Vermouth.

1/3 French Vermouth.

1/3 Dry Gin.

Shake well and strain into cocktail glass.

So, apparently, the authors of the Savoy Cocktail book came into a bit of hot water for publishing this version of the Lone Tree.

In the second edition of the Savoy, they included the following at the back of the book:

Lone Tree Cocktail

1/4 Italian Vermouth.

3/4 Gin.

Shake well and strain into cocktail glass.

A friend of mine wrote to me recently from Paris, giving the Savoy Cocktail Book a little well merited praise.

He objected, however, to the formula for the "LONE TREE COCKTAIL" on page 97 of this book, and explained his objection by giving the history of the origin of this cocktail. The following is the gist of this history.

"Round about the year 1900 a prominent member of a well-known club a few miles from Astor, Massachusetts, propounded to his fellow-members the startling theory that it was possible to concoct a cocktail without the addition of bitters. Hitherto bitters had always been considered to be an essential ingredient of all cocktails.  With some diffidence the members of the club decided on the principle that a brave man will try anything once, to give the theory a chance.  The result was an immediate success and the launching of a bitterless cocktail upon an astonished world. It was called after its inventor's property, Lone Tree Farms and consisting simply of 3 parts Gin to one part of Italian vermouth, shaken very thoroughly in ice so that the melted ice formed about one quarter of the finished potion. No French Vermouth was used ; indeed, at that date, French vermouth was practically unknown in America."

The original theory of the bitterless cocktail was that bitters were bad for the human system but, like so many other theories, it appears to have no facts to support it, and the question of the beneficial or contrary effect of bitters in a cocktail is still one with which some of the greatest scientists of the day are constantly investigating without arriving at any satisfactory answer.

Anyway, while looking through various cocktail books, I found a version of the Lone Tree in a recently acquired version of Jacques Straub's "Drinks" from 1914.

His version of the Lone Tree is about the same as above, 2/3 Gin & 1/3 Italian Vermouth, except that it calls for Tom Gin.

So...

1 1/2 oz Tanqueray Malacca Gin. (Thanks again Mike and Jenny!)

3/4 oz Carpano Antica Vermouth.

dash Depaz Cane Syrup.

Stir well and strain into a cocktail glass. Lemon Peel

A tasty and bitterless cocktail, who'd a thought? Welcome to the future!

Edited August 8, 2008 by eje (log)

[thirtyoneknots]

I've always thought the Legend of the Lone Tree to be slightly silly; if a thing is defined by a feature, and you remove that feature, how can you still call it the same thing? If bitters are the defining feature of a cocktail, and then you remove them, then at least on a semantic level, you no longer have a cocktail. I'm not saying that the Lone Tree isn't a cocktail, or even that it isn't delicious, I'm just saying that the story doesn't make much sense to me.

Unless, I guess, they are saying the vermouth is combining the bitter in it?

Anybody have any info on the veracity of the story? Dr. Wondrich?

[eje]

Well, it is my understanding that, until someone came up with the pickled onion idea in the 40s or 50s, the defining difference between the Gibson and the Dry Martini was the lack of orange bitters in the Gibson.

Mostly, I read this anecdote as taking the Savoy author(s) to task for altering the recipe and adding bitters to the Lone Tree "Cocktail". Whether you consider a mixed drink without bitters a cocktail or not.

I mean, since Craddock and the Savoy editors stamp just about every drink in the Savoy Cocktail Book a "cocktail" whether it has bitters or not, it seems that fight had already been lost by the 1930s.

Now if we can just get people to stop calling fruit flavored vodka drinks Martinis...

Edited August 8, 2008 by eje (log)

[eje]

Lord Suffolk Cocktail

1/8 Italian Vermouth. (1/4 oz Carpano Antica)

1/8 Cointreau. (1/4 oz Cointreau)

5/8 Gin. (1 1/4 oz Plymouth Gin)

1/8 Maraschino. (1/4 oz Luxardo Maraschino)

Shake (stir, please) well and strain into cocktail glass. (Lemon peel.)

Whichever Lord Lieutenant of Suffolk County this cocktail refers to, he certainly had a sweet tooth!

It's actually a pretty tasty cocktail with the funk of the Maraschino out front, just really, really sweet.

[slkinsey]

Wouldn't the Earl of Suffolk be known as "Lord Suffolk"?

[thirtyoneknots]

Well, it is my understanding that, until someone came up with the pickled onion idea in the 40s or 50s, the defining difference between the Gibson and the Dry Martini was the lack of orange bitters in the Gibson.

Mostly, I read this anecdote as taking the Savoy author(s) to task for altering the recipe and adding bitters to the Lone Tree "Cocktail".  Whether you consider a mixed drink without bitters a cocktail or not.

I mean, since Craddock and the Savoy editors stamp just about every drink in the Savoy Cocktail Book a "cocktail" whether it has bitters or not, it seems that fight had already been lost by the 1930s.

Now if we can just get people to stop calling fruit flavored vodka drinks Martinis...

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I'm not trying to go so far as to suggest that the cocktail should have such a narrow definition today, but in the context of the time the story is set in it seems slightly absurd.

I guess what I'm wondering is if, at the time the story is set, all cocktails must have bitters, and then a guy goes and creates a 'cocktail' without bitters to prove a point, what then makes said drink a cocktail?

[bostonapothecary]

I guess what I'm wondering is if, at the time the story is set, all cocktails must have bitters, and then a guy goes and creates a 'cocktail' without bitters to prove a point, what then makes said drink a cocktail?

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it has adult flavors... bitters are just the easiest way to get them.

[eje]

The Los Angeles Cocktail

(4 People)

The Juice of 1 Lemon. (Juice a generous quarter of a Lemon)

4 Hookers Whisky. (2 oz Eagle Rare Bourbon)

4 Teaspoonsful Sugar. (1 teaspoon sugar)

1 Egg. (About a quarter of a whisked large egg)

1 Dash Italian Vermouth. (a splash of Carpano Antica)

Shake well and strain into cocktail glass. (Drops of Angostura to garnish.)

I will note that this recipe is nearly verbatim from Judge Jr.'s "Here's How" except that Judge Jr. calls for "Scotch" instead of just "Whisky". He also adds the comment, "After trying this you will understand why they talk about the climate out there." Whatever that means.

I wasn't feeling much like Scotch and the bottle of Eagle Rare Bourbon was handy.

I also took the liberty of borrowing the Angostura drop garnish from the Pisco Punch, which adds a nice spicy scent to the cocktail. And, well, plus bitters, so you can actually call it a cocktail!

I really enjoyed this cocktail. It's too bad so many people are skittish about whole eggs in cocktails, as this cocktail is a great pick me up. As Harry McElhone sez about the Swissess in "Barflies and Cocktails", "This is a very good bracer for that feeling of the morning after the night before."

[eje]

I'm not trying to go so far as to suggest that the cocktail should have such a narrow definition today, but in the context of the time the story is set in it seems slightly absurd.

I guess what I'm wondering is if, at the time the story is set, all cocktails must have bitters, and then a guy goes and creates a 'cocktail' without bitters to prove a point, what then makes said drink a cocktail?

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I'm not entirely sure.

Just talking out of my hat here...

It's possible that at the time the use of Italian Vermouth was still uncommon enough, at least in some areas of the country, that even using it in a cocktail would be unusual. Perhaps that is what the novelty of the Lone Tree was about. Someone got a new bottle of Italian Vermouth and realized that they could make tasty cocktails with it.

I mean, certainly, I can think of bars today where even calling for something other than a whisky with a beer chaser, whiskey and water, or whiskey rocks will get you a sideways look.

[slkinsey]

Re vermouth: In Imbibe!, Dave Wondrich notes that vermouth was quite well established in NY by the 1860s, and really took off in the 1880s with the Manhattan Cocktail. The first recipe for a "Vermuth Cocktail" (consisting of nothing more than vermouth and a piece of ice with a lemon twist) appeared in an 1869 book. This all suggests that the Lone Tree story would have to be apocryphal, and further suggests that the definition of "cocktail" had already begun to expand significantly by 1870.

[eje]

Re vermouth:  In Imbibe!, Dave Wondrich notes that vermouth was quite well established in NY by the 1860s, and really took off in the 1880s with the Manhattan Cocktail.  The first recipe for a "Vermuth Cocktail" (consisting of nothing more than vermouth and a piece of ice with a lemon twist) appeared in an 1869 book.  This all suggests that the Lone Tree story would have to be apocryphal, and further suggests that the definition of "cocktail" had already begun to expand significantly by 1870.

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Well, my point was that ingredients well known in metropolitan areas like New York or San Francisco don't necessarily make it to the sticks within the first few years or even, sometimes, ever.

I was wondering if someone had any idea what the "well-known club a few miles from Astor, Massachusetts" might have been, but no town named Astor shows up on current maps. I see a few web references to Astor, Suffolk County, MA. Suffolk County contains Boston, so perhaps Astor was subsumed by Boston's expansion?

[slkinsey]

With respect to vermouth: Dave may have more to say about this if he checks in, but Imbibe! says: "By the 1860s, anyway, [vermouth] was pretty well established in New York and had even reached places like Galveston, Texas, and Dubuque, Iowa." This suggests it would have been known most anywhere in Massachusetts, certainly by the time the Lone Tree story is said to have taken place some 40 years later.

With respect to Astor, Massachusetts: Boston is a somewhat unusual city in the fact that it annexed certain towns and cities (e.g., Charlestown, Dorchester, Brighton) as it grew, but not other towns that would have been equally likely and natural to annex (e.g., Cambridge, Newton, Brookline). Either way, the old names of towns and cities annexed or not by Boston, and even of the neighborhoods associated with these towns and cities, persist today (eg., Allston, which was a neighborhood in the city of Brighton pre-annexation). I grew up in Boston and am not aware of any Astor in the Boston area. This doesn't mean one didn't exist elsewhere in the state, of course, or that it isn't a misspelling or misremembrance of something else.

[thirtyoneknots]

Could be that Astor was a 'company town' connected to The Famous Astors that just sort of faded from the map completely.

I think the whole Lone Tree story is highly suspect. Did you try the Savoy version with bitters? Which one did you prefer?