4 hours ago, Reed & Thistle said:OK, so here is the first drink (ok I had a couple others I will go back to as I didn't take pics) and I apologize for the poor image this time, I will do better.
From the Savoy:
The Irish Cocktail (no I'm not doing them in any order).
2 dashes Pernod
2 dashes Curacao
1 dash Maraschino
1 dash angostura bitters
1/2 glass Irish Whisky
Shake well and strain into cocktail glass. Add olive and squeeze orange peel on top.
As made for the R&T
2 oz Irish Whisky
2 bsp Curacao
1 bsp Maraschino
1 bsp Absente
da angostura bitters
Stirred, over ice in old fashioned glass, Garnish with olive and orange slice.
Observations: the Irish whiskey and curacao are pretty self evident, but the absinthe and maraschino are quite subtle and do elevate it to a more interesting drink than say the Approve. As a huge fan of the Old Fashioned, this is comfortably familiar, the curacao and Maraschino definitely add the sweetness that the sugar would add there, the absinthe adds a bit more depth, but almost makes it a Old Fashioned/Whiskey Sazerac hybrid. And to be honest It doesn't really improve on either. A good strong whisky drink when looking for something different and if you are partial to either of those worth a try once and make up your own mind. Oh and the Olive doesn't really seem to add or detract from the drink other than just give it a WTF factor.
Cheers
Gary
PS Barina, yes Other Resources will be used as I go, and the Master List will continue to grow but to be brutally honest The Savoy is just one of books that is kind of known and has a bit of everything, and the Waldorf, while it has a tonne of minute Martini Variations, that I am just not bothering with as they really seem to be notes on one regular customer's preferences than actual cocktail variations, there are a few gems in there worth reviving, and how do you ignore the history of the Waldorf-Astoria, it gust goes well with the whole theme of the Pub and the B&B. And if a few prohibition era drinks get through all good, the Building has an extension that was added in the early thirties too. So I'm not being all that dogmatic about the pre-prohibition rule, especially on the Master list that really, many of the drinks I suspect will never be ordered.
By some coincidence I made the same cocktail recently, and I think the devil is in the details with this one. The final result will depend on your ratios of course (you are using a small amount of maraschino liqueur which I think is a good idea as it tends to overpower things), and the quality of your ingredients because it's such a simple drink.
Can I suggest that you share the brands of the ingredients you are using?
PS A great source of historical recipes is Martin Doudoroff's very handy Cocktail app; it's a great tool! And it's a somewhat curated list (which means he included the recipes of interest from his references, the ones that are "mixologically interesting or historically important", not every single recipe under the sun...). Referring to it, you would have seen that this recipe first appeared in this form in Harry Johnson's Bartender Manual (1900), and that it originally contained Boker's bitters (not Angostura). I guess that Boker's bitters were already extinct/hard to find by the time the Savoy was published.
