Vintage Spirits & Forgotten Cocktails

[slkinsey]

I just scored some raspberry syrup and tried this one myself. Loved it, but I am a real fan of rye. One thing, though: this is a drink that IMO required Old Overholt. I tried it with Wild Turkey 101, which has a much stronger flavor, and it was hard to tell that the drink tasted like much of anything other than rye. With milder Old Overholt, though, it worked very well. Interesting drink. I would never have thought of rye with grapefruit juice. I'll definitely be making it again. After all, I have to use up my raspberry syrup.

[ludja]

.... At the end of the meal we were served a bourbon based cocktail made with an elderflower infused syrup and several other ingredients. The bartender (Eban, I believe) explained that the concept was to create a cool (in temperature ... and in affect, I assume) "hot toddy" by using a high proof, warming bourbon and an herb with warming and soothing (anxiety reducing) properties.

Just an interesting anecdote. Any precedent for the use of elderflower in cocktails or liqueurs?

rien

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I've been reading David Bouley's Danube cookbook. His restaurant in NYC has a signature drink, "The Danube Cocktail" which is simply champagne, elderflower syrup (4 oz: 2oz) stirred gently with ice and strained.

The drink you had sounds v. interesting. It's been awhile, but any idea on the remaining ingredients?

Elderflower is a lovely flavor; I've only had it in non-alcoholic drinks (syrup plus club soda) to date.

[DrinkBoy]

News Flash!!!

Ted "Dr. Cocktail" Haigh is going to be featured on NPR's "Day To Day" show today (Friday, December 31, 2004). It's about a 4 minute interview somewhere in the show.

The show starts at noon PST and 3pm EST.

You can find more details here: http://www.npr.org/programs/day/

Where they say:

Friday, December 31, 2004

We'll get a head start on New Year's Eve with a visit with "Doctor Cocktail"

-- mixed drink historian and obscure drink expert Ted Haigh, who's written

a book on long-forgotten cocktails and has a fun online cocktail database

(http://www.CocktailDB.com).

The show will apparently also be available to listen to from their archive.

-Robert

[Pan]

I just listened to this interesting bit of history with cocktail historian Ted Haigh. He discussed the origins of the cocktail and mentioned an early cocktail he loves, the "Corpse Reviver." Starting at around 3 PM Eastern Time, you can listen to the program here. (Haigh's segment was only part of the program.)

He also has a cocktail database, which was linked from NPR's "Day to Day" page.

[rabidscottsman]

I just got this book for free from a gift card from work and i love it. I think im going to try the Knickerbocker a la Monsieur.

My question is what rum would you use for the drink?

[slkinsey]

I just got this book for free from a gift card from work and i love it. I think im going to try the Knickerbocker a la Monsieur.

My question is what rum would you use for the drink?

The recipe calls for "Virgin Islands rum." Both Cruzan rum and Pusser's rum are made in the Virgin Islands. Generically, as far as I know, "Virgin Islands rum" means a light rum, so you can probably substitute your house light rum of preference without too much difference.

[slkinsey]

It's a good sign that this book is a year old and I'm still enjoying it.

I take issue with one or two of the formulations (in particular the Pegu Club recipe, which is both way off and strangely ahistorical given the premise of this book), but all in all I think it's a wonderful book and many of the formerly forgotten cocktails it features have entered the standard repertoire not only at the slkinsey household but in many of the better NYC watering holes.

So, having finally procured some genever, and having temporarily sated my craving for the Improved Holland Gin Cock-Tail, it was time to try one of the more peculiar drinks from Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails, the Alamagoozlum. This is a very unusual cocktail given the long list of disparate ingredients as well as the fact that the recipe makes three cocktails rather than just one. I'm going from memory here, but it goes something like this:

Alamagoozlum

2.0 oz : genever

2.0 oz : water

1.5 oz : Jamaican rum

1.5 oz : Green or Yellow Chartreuse (I used green)

1.5 oz : gomme syrup (I used 2:1 simple syrup)

0.5 oz : orange curaçao

0.5 oz : Angostura bitters

one half of an egg white

Shake all ingredients with ice hard, like your very life depends on it, until very, very cold. Strain into three cocktail glasses.

As you may imagine, this is a very spicy cocktail and there are a lot of flavors going on -- but somehow they all play well together. I would call this a cocktail for late fall/early winter due to the rich, sweet spicyness. It's like pumpkin pie in a glass. Interestingly, it's also quite thick and viscous on the palate, unlike any other cocktail I've had. Has anyone else tried this one? Any other interesting or strange discoveries from Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails?

[Alchemist]

What purpose does the H2O have?

[slkinsey]

What purpose does the H2O have?

It's such a dense, viscous, strongly flavored cocktail that I assume the water is necessary just to provide additional dilution beyond the normal 20% you'd get from shaking. Many of the ingredients are so intensely flavored that the drink really needs to be thinned out quite a bit. Think about what you're getting in each serving minus the water: 2/3 ounce genever, 1/2 ounce rich simple syrup, 1/2 ounce Chartreuse, 1/2 ounce heavy rum and a teaspoon each of orange curaçao and Angostura bitters. That's just too much strong flavor and too much sweetness without taking extreme measures to thin the drink. It's incredibly strongly flavored even with the additional dilution. That's my guess, anyway. It is odd, though, isn't it? It's the only recipe I can recall that calls for water.

[Alchemist]

What purpose does the H2O have?

It's such a dense, viscous, strongly flavored cocktail that I assume the water is necessary just to provide additional dilution beyond the normal 20% you'd get from shaking. Many of the ingredients are so intensely flavored that the drink really needs to be thinned out quite a bit. Think about what you're getting in each serving minus the water: 2/3 ounce genever, 1/2 ounce rich simple syrup, 1/2 ounce Chartreuse, 1/2 ounce heavy rum and a teaspoon each of orange curaçao and Angostura bitters. That's just too much strong flavor and too much sweetness without taking extreme measures to thin the drink. It's incredibly strongly flavored even with the additional dilution. That's my guess, anyway. It is odd, though, isn't it? It's the only recipe I can recall that calls for water.

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Many of the old recipies called for shaking with cracked ice. Do you think they had a big block of ice then cracked (Picked) a good size chunk off or was it real shards of ice like the cracked cubes @ M&H, Little Branch, Angel Share, East Side Co. or Pegu? Would shaking with shredded (that is a new definition of Ice between cracked and crushed) Ice bring the H2O content up enough?

Since Gormet Mag. came out with that Ice Review this month should we get a topic devoted to water anyone can walk on?

Edit 'cause I forgot...

I have seen a few recipies that start

55 gallons of water and a bathtub.

Proibition era books, needless to say.

Edited October 12, 2005 by Alchemist (log)

[Rob Simmon]

As you may imagine, this is a very spicy cocktail and there are a lot of flavors going on -- but somehow they all play well together.  I would call this a cocktail for late fall/early winter due to the rich, sweet spicyness.  It's like pumpkin pie in a glass.  Interestingly, it's also quite thick and viscous on the palate, unlike any other cocktail I've had.  Has anyone else tried this one?  Any other interesting or strange discoveries from Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails?

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I've tried it--not a big fan. Definitely viscous. On the other hand, my shaker isn't big enough to add the water, so I couldn't cut it at all. I think the large number of assertive ingredients just become overwhelming.

Other forgotten cocktails: I can't get the Jupiter to work right (probably the King Eider Vermouth) On the other hand, the 20th Century is truly amazing. The Monkey Gland and Blood and Sand are weird but good. Neither of the champagne cocktails float my boat (Seelbach and French 75) The filmograph is worth making more than once, and the Millionaire is good but very sweet.

[slkinsey]

From this book we love the Bronx and the Income Tax Cocktail (a Bronx with bitters), Twentieth Century, Aviation, Vieux Carré, Coffee Cocktail, Brooklyn, Satan's Whiskers, Corpse Reviver #2, Blinker, Pegu Club and the Jack Rose.

I was familiar with at least half of these before the book published, and I disagree with some of the formulae (strongly disagree in the case of the Pegu Club), but that's a remarkable number of "regular rotation" cocktails in one slim book.

I hope there's a volume two.

[limewine]

I was already a fan of several drinks in the book--the Aviation, French 75 and Floridita Daiquiri among them--but Doc's interpretation of the Blood & Sand (most recipes call for equal parts of the 4 ingredients; he jiggles it a bit) made a ho-hum cocktail into a very good one.

Favorites spawned by Doc's writing include the Widow's Kiss (Calvados, Benedictine, Chartreuse, bitters--mmmmmm), the Corpse Reviver #2 (now a standard in my house) and the Twentieth Century. If I can ever track down a bottle of decent apricot brandy, along with several other hard-to-find ingredients, I'm sure I'll add more drinks to this list.

[plattetude]

As I'd mentioned in the Campari thread a while back, I think the Lucien Gaudin cocktail from this book is lip-smackin' good, and a real unexpected treat. And I'm reminded that it's been too long since I've availed myself to one!

Christopher

[lancastermike]

Have been working our way through this book. Some real winners, Monkey Gland, Corpse Reviver and the Pegu Club. I made the Jack Rose last night and was underwhelmed by it. I think it needs more grenedine or less lemon juice. I am using my own made grenedine. He calls for two "dashes" of grenedine. Not sure how much a dash is, but it was not enough.

The Twentieth Century sounds great, but I have to get some creme de cacoa to try it.

[slkinsey]

The Jack Rose is also much, much better with Laird's bonded. Laird's didn't start making the blended stuff until the 70s sometime, so I think all the traditional applejack cocktails taste closer to what they were if made with the bonded stuff.

[Rob Simmon]

I'm making my way through VS&FC for the second time, trying to pay attention to the drinks that dind't strike me one way or the other when I first made them, to see if I was missing something. With the Park Avenue, I sure was:

2 oz. gin

3/4 oz. sweet vermouth

3/4 oz. pineapple juice

2 tsp. orange curacao

With Carpano Antiqua formula, it really rocks! There's a bitter component that really ties everything together.

[KatieLoeb]

I was at Pegu the other day and the bartender made me a Royal Bermuda Yacht Club cocktail. It was absolutely delicious. He showed me the recipe in the book and that's when I decided it was absurd that this wasn't in my library. I found This Seller on eBay that seems to have a pretty good supply of the book for a reasonable price in case anyone else was looking for it.

[mrbigjas]

I was at Pegu the other day and the bartender made me a Royal Bermuda Yacht Club cocktail.  It was absolutely delicious.  He showed me the recipe in the book and that's when I decided it was absurd that this wasn't in my library.  I found This Seller on eBay that seems to have a pretty good supply of the book for a reasonable price in case anyone else was looking for it.

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it's also $10.87 on amazon, and if i get my order up over $25 i get free shipping (cue host with eG-friendly link). so, imagine i love me some fun oldschool recipes like a pegu club and an aviation and a fancy free and whatnot. and imagine i only have one bartender book. what else should i buy to get my order up over $25? anyone?

[KatieLoeb]

I was at Pegu the other day and the bartender made me a Royal Bermuda Yacht Club cocktail.  It was absolutely delicious.  He showed me the recipe in the book and that's when I decided it was absurd that this wasn't in my library.  I found This Seller on eBay that seems to have a pretty good supply of the book for a reasonable price in case anyone else was looking for it.

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it's also $10.87 on amazon, and if i get my order up over $25 i get free shipping (cue host with eG-friendly link). so, imagine i love me some fun oldschool recipes like a pegu club and an aviation and a fancy free and whatnot. and imagine i only have one bartender book. what else should i buy to get my order up over $25? anyone?

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Vintage Spirits & Forgotten Cocktails

Killer Cocktails is very good, as is Dale DeGroff's The Craft of the Cocktail

Those three books oughta keep you busy for a while. And yes - those are eGullet friendly links.

And read the fine print on that "Free" shipping. I've gotten myself screwed more than once trying to get my order over the magical threshold only to discover that my purchases weren't eligible for the free shipping offer until after I'd spent more money than I needed to.

[mrbigjas]

sweet, i just got the vintage book and the degroff book. thanks katie, i can't wait to spend yet more money on obscure liqueurs and mixers i use .25 oz at a time....

[Rob Simmon]

sweet, i just got the vintage book and the degroff book.  thanks katie, i can't wait to spend yet more money on obscure liqueurs and mixers i use .25 oz at a time....

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Just wait until you start haunting hole-in-the-wall liquor stores, and travelling to the far corners of the globe in search of rare liqueurs.

[mrbigjas]

sweet, i just got the vintage book and the degroff book.  thanks katie, i can't wait to spend yet more money on obscure liqueurs and mixers i use .25 oz at a time....

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Just wait until you start haunting hole-in-the-wall liquor stores, and travelling to the far corners of the globe in search of rare liqueurs.

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ha! don't encourage me...

[Alchemist]

I was at Pegu the other day and the bartender made me a Royal Bermuda Yacht Club cocktail.  It was absolutely delicious.  He showed me the recipe in the book and that's when I decided it was absurd that this wasn't in my library.  I found This Seller on eBay that seems to have a pretty good supply of the book for a reasonable price in case anyone else was looking for it.

←

it's also $10.87 on amazon, and if i get my order up over $25 i get free shipping (cue host with eG-friendly link). so, imagine i love me some fun oldschool recipes like a pegu club and an aviation and a fancy free and whatnot. and imagine i only have one bartender book. what else should i buy to get my order up over $25? anyone?

←

Vintage Spirits & Forgotten Cocktails

Killer Cocktails is very good, as is Dale DeGroff's The Craft of the Cocktail

Those three books oughta keep you busy for a while. And yes - those are eGullet friendly links.

And read the fine print on that "Free" shipping. I've gotten myself screwed more than once trying to get my order over the magical threshold only to discover that my purchases weren't eligible for the free shipping offer until after I'd spent more money than I needed to.

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Don't forget Jigger Beaker and Glass by Charles H. Baker. I'ts $16ish and worth twice the price.

[M.X.Hassett]

eG Amazon link: Jigger, Beaker, and Glass they are currently running a special buy Vintage Spirits and Jigger and it will only be 27.34.