Commodore Cocktail

Commodore Cocktail

1 Teaspoonful Syrup. (1 teaspoon depaz cane syrup)
2 Dashes Orange Bitters. (1 dash Angostura Orange, 1 Dash Angostura Aromatic)
The Juice of 1/2 Lime or 1/4 Lemon. (1/4 Lemon)
1 Glass Canadian Club Whisky. (1 3/4 oz 40 Creek Barrel Select Whisky, 1/4 oz Buffalo Trace Bourbon)

Shake well and strain into cocktail glass.

I’m spiking the 40 Creek with a bit of Bourbon, as I find it a bit insipid all on its own. In some cocktails that works, Byrrh Special for example, in others not so much. In this Canadian Whisky Sour, it seemed like it could use a little goose.

For some reason, I thought the recipe called for regular Angostura Bitters. About half way through, I looked at the books, and realized, “oops!” Anyway, my debut use of the Ango Orange Bitters here.

A perfectly fine and enjoyable Whisk(e)y Sour. Nothing that will blow your mind, but nothing that you would toss out, either.

This post is one in a series documenting my ongoing effort to make all of the cocktails in the Savoy Cocktail Book, starting at the first, Abbey, and ending at the last, Zed.

Colonial Cocktail

Colonial Cocktail

2/3 Dry Gin. (2 oz Plymouth Gin)
1/3 Grape Fruit Juice. (1 oz fresh squeezed Grapefruit Juice)
3 Dashes Maraschino. (Luxardo)

Shake well and strain into cocktail glass.

While I wouldn’t quite call this a “great” or “amazing” cocktail, it is pleasantly refreshing and enjoyable enough. I imagine it would be quite nice on a hot day. If we ever had any of those here in San Francisco.

One thing I noticed was that this flavor combination really highlighted the nutty flavor aspects of the Luxardo Maraschino.

Not too far from the Daiquiri variant reputedly enjoyed by Hemingway, eh?

This post is one in a series documenting my ongoing effort to make all of the cocktails in the Savoy Cocktail Book, starting at the first, Abbey, and ending at the last, Zed.

Cold Deck Cocktail

Cold Deck Cocktail

1/4 White Crème de Menthe. (1/4 oz Brizard)
1/4 Italian Vermouth. (3/4 oz Cinzano Rosso)
1/2 Brandy. (1 1/2 oz Maison Surrenne Petite Champagne Cognac)

Shake (stir - eje) well and strain into cocktail glass.

Reduced Crème de Menthe a bit. Still the dominating element of the cocktail.

Not sure what I think about this one. It is very minty. Not exactly in an unpleasant way though. Was having some Elk Creamery Camembert de Chevre and crackers at the same time, and expected it would be a bad flavor combination, as many cocktails are. It was actually quite nice.

The Maison Surrenne is a very different Cognac from the Pierre Ferrand Ambre. Stronger in the wood and vegetal characteristics, where the Pierre Ferrand is fruity/citrus and white pepper. It will certainly be interesting to see how it works out in other cocktails.

This post is one in a series documenting my ongoing effort to make all of the cocktails in the Savoy Cocktail Book, starting at the first, Abbey, and ending at the last, Zed.

Coffee Cocktail

Coffee Cocktail

The Yolk of 1 Egg.
1 Teaspoonful Sugar or Gomme Syrup.
1/3 Port Wine. (1 oz?)
1/6 Brandy. (1/2 oz?)
1 Dash Curacao.

Shake well, strain into a small wineglass, and grate a little nutmeg on top.

The name of this drink is a misnomer, as coffee is not to be found among its ingredients, but it looks like coffee when it has been properly concocted.

The Savoy recipe for the Coffee Cocktail doesn’t make much sense to me. Small, quite sweet, and very eggy. Notably, it is the only Savoy recipe I’ve noticed so far, where the fractions don’t add up to a whole. Typo? Evidence that the fractions are actually portions of some standard measure rather than the total volume of before chill liquids?

Thanks to the DrinkBoy forums, Dale DeGroff, and Darcy O’Neil, I recently found out it is originally from Jerry Thomas’ book.

Thomas’ version is as follows:

Coffee Cocktail.
(Use a large bar-glass.)
Take 1 tea-spoonful powdered white sugar.
1 fresh egg.
1 large wine-glass of port wine. (2 oz?)
1 pony of brandy. (1 oz?)
2 or 3 lumps of ice.

Break the egg into the glass, put in the sugar, and lastly the port wine, brandy and ice. Shake up very thoroughly, and strain into a medium bar goblet. Grate a little nutmeg on top before serving.

The name of this drink is a misnomer, as coffee and bitters are not to be found among its ingredients, but it looks like coffee when it has been properly concocted, and hence probably its name.

Makes more sense, though uses a whole egg and leaves out the Curacao.

Of particular interest, is the fact that Craddock (or the Savoy editors) leave out the critical, “and bitters,” from the comments. So, we see Thomas (or whoever wrote his copy) discriminating a traditional “Cocktail” as containing bitters, while the Savoy pointedly does not.

I split the difference and semi-accidentally upped the booze to port ratio:

Coffee Cocktail

The Yolk of 1 Egg.
1 Teaspoonful Caster Sugar.
1 1/2 oz Ficklin Old Vine Tinta Port.
1 1/2 oz Pierre Ferrand Ambre Cognac.
1 Teaspoonful Brizard Orange Curacao.

Shake well, strain into a small wineglass, and grate a little nutmeg on top.

Very nice. I will have to go back and redo it with the proper amounts of port and brandy.

This post is one in a series documenting my ongoing effort to make all of the cocktails in the Savoy Cocktail Book, starting at the first, Abbey, and ending at the last, Zed.

Club Cocktail

Club Cocktail

2/3 Dry Gin (1 1/2 oz Boodles Gin)
1/3 Italian Vermouth (3/4 oz Carpano Antica)
1 Dash Yellow Chartreuse

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

Here’s one I expected to like a lot. While I found it fine, it didn’t jump out of the glass at me. I think the Boodles may have been a bad choice. Something like Tanqueray or Junipero would have fought it out more actively with the sweet vermouth and Chartreuse.

Remade with Junipero and Cinzano Rosso, I found I did enjoy it to a much greater extent. Sort of a light version of the Bijou/Jewel.

Really should double strain these stirred cocktails, as pieces of cracked ice sometimes get out around the side of the julep strainer. Not very attractive.

This post is one in a series documenting my ongoing effort to make all of the cocktails in the Savoy Cocktail Book, starting at the first, Abbey, and ending at the last, Zed.

Clover Leaf Cocktail

Clover Leaf

The same as CLOVER CLUB, with a sprig of fresh mint on top.

so…

The Juice of 1/2 Lemon or of 1 Lime (Juice 1/2 Lemon)
1/3 Grenadine (3/4 oz Homemade Grenadine)
The White of 1 Egg (whisk this a bit before adding)
2/3 Dry Gin (1 1/2 oz Boodles Gin)

Shake well (Combine above ingredients in boston shaker and shake for a minute or so without ice. Crack the seal on your boston shaker and add ice. Shake well again.) and strain into cocktail glass.

Interesting, how much difference switching two ingredients makes!

For the Clover Club version, the first smell is that of the Tanqueray Gin, then you get the lime. It really is a tart, lean, gin forward cocktail.

With the Boodles and lemon in the Clover Leaf, you get the lemon, the grenadine, and maybe the mint. I guess there is gin in there; but, I’ll be darned if I can taste it.

I guess I would be inclined to call the first Tanqueray and lime drink the manly “Clover Club” and the Boodles and lemon the “Pink Lady”!

Oh, one note, Robert Vermeire, in his book “Cocktails: How to Mix Them” suggests The Clover Club should be “shaken up with one or two sprigs of mint and decorated with a mint leaf on top.” I’ve tried it that way and found it pretty tasty. Though, ultimately, I think maybe lightly muddling the mint sprigs in the gin, then removing them before shaking might be better.

This post is one in a series documenting my ongoing effort to make all of the cocktails in the Savoy Cocktail Book, starting at the first, Abbey, and ending at the last, Zed.

Clover Club Cocktail

Clover Club

The Juice of 1/2 Lemon or of 1 Lime (Juice 1 Lime)
1/3 Grenadine (3/4 oz Homemade Grenadine)
The White of 1 Egg (whisk this a bit before adding)
2/3 Dry Gin (1 1/2 oz Tanqueray Gin)

Shake well (Combine above ingredients in boston shaker and shake for a minute or so without ice. Crack the seal on your boston shaker and add ice. Shake well again.) and strain into cocktail glass.

First time I’ve experimented with “Dry Shaking” the ingredients before adding the ice. It does seem to emulsify the ingredients nicely before chilling, and give the foam a better set.

This is actually a much tarter cocktail than I thought it would be. Quite nice, really.

Different versions of this cocktail from different eras call variously for Groseille (Red Currant) Syrup, Raspberry Syrup, and Grenadine.

The erudite Paul Clarke has a wonderful writeup of the cocktail here:

A Change in Fortune

This post is one in a series documenting my ongoing effort to make all of the cocktails in the Savoy Cocktail Book, starting at the first, Abbey, and ending at the last, Zed.

Clayton’s Cocktail

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Clayton’s Special Cocktail

1/2 Bacardi Rum (2 oz Flor de Cana Extra Dry Rum)
1/4 Kola Tonic (1/2 oz Rose’s Kola Tonic)
1/4 Sirop-de-Citron (1/2 oz Monin Lemon Syrup)

Shake well and strain into cocktail glass.

Note: I did slightly increase the ratio of booze to syrup in the recipe.

My big regret is I bought Lemon Syrup instead of making it myself.

The Monin is OK. At least it doesn’t have corn syrup. However, I didn’t realize until I looked at the bottle when I got home, that it does have preservatives, natural flavors, and FD&C Yellow #5.

I know this cocktail would have been at least 200% better with home made lemon syrup. Well, the next time sirop-de-Citron comes up, it’s going to be home made.

The Kola tonic seems to be a fairly subtle flavor to me. I kind of get it as an aftertaste. Nothing really strong. It seems like a dash or two of Fee’s Aromatic Bitters or Lemon Bitters would really punch this cocktail up.

Anyway, quite tasty. Could be a little more tart for my tastes, I suppose.

As an aside, I was sort of wondering who the Clayton in Clayton’s Special Cocktail was.

After a bit of googling, I discovered the following:

According to the wikipedia, Clayton’s was “originally blended and bottled by the Clayton Brothers for the Pure Water Company, Battersea, London, in the 1880s”…and is the brand name of a non-alcoholic, non-carbonated beverage coloured and packaged to resemble bottled whisky. It was the subject of a major marketing campaign in Australia and New Zealand in the 1970’s & 1980s, promoting it as “the drink you have when you’re not having a drink” at a time when alcohol was being targeted as a major factor in the road toll.

This post is one in a series documenting my ongoing effort to make all of the cocktails in the Savoy Cocktail Book, starting at the first, Abbey, and ending at the last, Zed.

Orgeat–Tales Version

This time I’m following Francois Xavier’s Orgeat procedure from this blog post:

Homemade Orgeat Syrup (French Barley Water)

(My favorite part of the lovely pictures which accompany the recipe is that the author appears to be making orgeat in his/her pajamas.)

550 grams blanched and roughly chopped almond & (optional) apricot kernels
150 grams blanched and finely minced almonds & (optional) apricot kernels
3 litres of water
about 9 pounds of sugar (I like Florida Crystals)
1 cup Brandy or Cognac (I used Osocalis California Brandy)
2 teaspoons Orange Flower Water

This makes a bit more than 4 litres (or a gallon.)
Special equipment: scale, cheesecloth, candy thermometer

To blanch almonds (thanks Paul!): Purchase whole raw almond (and optionally apricot) kernels. Place in a saucepan and cover with water. Quickly bring to a boil over high heat. Remove from heat and rinse with cold water. Put on some good music, and rub the skins off each almond. It took me about the length of Nick Cave’s excellent new CD “Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!” to remove the skins from 856 grams of almonds.

In regards Almond and Apricot Kernels, I had a bit over 2 pounds of Almonds and 2 ounces of Apricot kernels to start with. They were mixed together to blanch, so I’m not exactly sure how much of each ended up in the final mix.

Roughly chop 550 grams almonds with a big knife. Finely chop 150 grams of almonds with a big knife.

Add almonds and 600 grams of sugar to a pot. Add 3 quarts of water. Bring to a boil, cool, and leave to rest for 12 hours. Because I am paranoid, I put it in the fridge.

Strain through cheesecloth or, even better, a coarse nylon straining bag (available from beer supply stores).

Wash and sanitize the bottles you will be using to store your syrup. I don’t have a dish washer, so I wash them, rinse them, then place them in a cold oven. Turn the temperature to 200 degrees. When it reaches 200, I leave them in for 15 minutes. Kind of like an autoclave.

Weigh the strained liquid.

For every 500 grams of strained liquid, add 700 grams of sugar. My liquid weighed 2774 grams, so I added around 3500 grams of sugar.

Put the pot over low heat, and heat to dissolve sugar. Interestingly, Francois Xavier recommends not to boil it, as this may turn your orgeat into caramel. I brought it to the recommended 40 Centigrade and kept it there for about 15 minutes, stirring to dissolve the sugar.

Leave the orgeat to cool. Then add the brandy and orange flower water.

Pour into the clean bottles.

Also, as Francis Xavier notes, “Real orgeat syrup will split after a few days in a thick, solid white layer of almond powder on top and syrup below. This is normal and happens with quality bought orgeat syrup such as the one I used to buy from Hédiard in Paris. All you need is insert a skewer in the bottle to break the top layer a bit, close and shake. This is really part of the fun in this product and a hallmark of quality orgeat syrup.”

Interestingly, perhaps because I am using florida crystals natural cane sugar, my orgeat came out even darker than Francois’.

Anyway, the best part about this recipe, is that you run almost no risk of over processing your almonds. With a food processor or a blender, it is very, very easy to start making almond butter, as I did last time. Almond fudge is cool, but it doesn’t really work for cocktails. Besides, unless you’re handicapped or suffering from carpal tunnel, there’s really no compelling reason to use a food processor for this small an amount of almonds.

Classic Cocktail

Classic Cocktail

1/6 Lemon Juice (1/2 oz lemon juice)
1/6 Curacao (1/2 oz Brizard Curacao)
1/6 Maraschino (1/2 oz Luxardo Maraschino)
1/2 Brandy (1 1/2 oz Pierre Ferrand Ambre)

Shake well and strain into cocktail glass. Frost rim of glass with castor sugar. Squeeze lemon peel on top.

I left off the sugar rim, as it seemed like this cocktail was plenty sweet already.

Sort of an interesting half way point between the Brandy Crusta and the Sidecar, no?

I do kind of wonder if bartenders getting this cocktail mixed up with the Sidecar, is how that cocktail ended up with a sugared rim.

Anyway, quite tasty. Could be a little more tart for my tastes, I suppose.

This post is one in a series documenting my ongoing effort to make all of the cocktails in the Savoy Cocktail Book, starting at the first, Abbey, and ending at the last, Zed.