Note: I’m gonna run this one before the Hurricane, as it is a just about perfect New Year’s Day Cocktail.
I.B.F. Pick-Me-Up Cocktail
In a wineglass place one lump of Ice, 3 dashes of Fernet Branca (1 tsp. Fernet), 3 dashes of Curacao (1 tsp. Luxardo Triplum), one liqueur glass of Brandy (1 1/2 oz Cerbois VSOP Armangac), fill remainder with Champagne (Louis Bouillot Cremant de Bourgogne Brut). Stir and squeeze lemon peel on cocktail glass.
According to their Blog (!) the…
International Bar Fly (IBF) was founded in 1924 by O. O. McIntyre at Harry’s New York Bar in Paris, France. Our members, known as International Bar Flies, have included Ernest Hemingway, Scott Fitzgerald, George Gershwin, Sinclair Lewis, Franklin Roosevelt, Gene Kelly, Noel Coward, Burt Lancaster, Thornton Wilder, Marlene Dietrich, Michele Morgan, Elsa Maxwell, and many more. The organization is devoted to the uplift and downfall of serious drinkers. New members are welcome.
This is a fine, fine cocktail and, apropos of New Year’s Day, a proper restorative for the drinker who may have imbibed a bit too seriously the night before. Depending on your feelings about Fernet, the I.B.F. may or may not benefit from a slightly generous hand with the teaspoon of that substance. I kind of thought it needed a little more…
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.
The French “75” Cocktail
2/3 Gin. (1 1/2 oz Aviation Gin)
1/3 Lemon Juice (3/4 oz Lemon Juice)
1 Spoonful Powdered Sugar. (1 tsp. Caster Sugar)
(Shake with ice?) Pour into tall glass containing cracked ice and fill up with Champagne (Louis Bouillot, Cremant de Bourgogne Rose ”Perle d’Aurore”).
Hits with remarkable precision.
Visually quite attractive to use a Rose Champagne …errr… Cremant de Bourgogne here.
The French “75″ and 75 cocktail have been discussed in some detail in the following eGullet topic:
Frank Meier & the “Soixante-Quinze”, Frank, of the Ritz, had a 75 cocktail.
Long story short, there are two cocktails, the “75″ Cocktail, (grenadine, Gin, Calvados, and lemon juice. served up.) and the French “75″ cocktail, (Gin, sugar, lemon, crushed ice. Top up with champagne.) Both are apparently named after a French field gun of some sort used during World War I.
I guess the most common mis-conception about the French “75″ is that it is made with Brandy or Cognac instead of Gin. On more than one occasion, out in bars, I’ve heard it ordered that way.
The other big thing is ice or no ice. Judge Jr., Patrick Gavin Duffy, and the Savoy Cocktail Book, all say cracked ice in a tall glass. It seems like it is more common these days to skip the ice and just build it in a champagne flute. I’ve made them without ice in the past, and thought the over ice version this time was quite refreshing. It seems like it would be nice on a hot day.
I shook the gin, lemon, and sugar with ice before adding it to the iced glass, because it seemed kind of weird not to mix them. I guess you could just dump the sugar in there? Or mix them in the bottom of the tall glass a bit before adding the ice?
Judge Jr., in his book, “Here’s How” makes the illuminating connection, quoted below:
This drink is really what won the War for the Allies: 2 jiggers Gin; 1 part lemon juice; a spoonful of powdered sugar; cracked ice. Fill up the rest of a tall glass with champagne! (If you use club soda instead of champagne, you have a Tom Collins.)
So basically nothing more than a Deluxe Tom Collins.
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.
Fancy Cocktail
(6 People)
Pour into the shaker 5 glasses of Cognac and a dessertspoonful of Angostura Bitters. Shake thoroughly and serve, adding a little champagne and a piece of lemon-rind after having rubbed the edges of the glasses with lemon syrup.
I usually make this cocktail, something like this:
Fancy Cocktail for one
Rub the rim of a cocktail glass with a slice of lemon. Frost the edge with superfine or caster sugar. Pour into the shaker 2 oz Cognac and a generous dash of Angostura Bitters. Stir with cracked ice until well chilled, and strain into the frosted glass. Top up with a bit of champagne, squeeze a piece of lemon peel over the glass and drop it in.
Cocktail disambiguation via David Wondrich’s “Imbibe!“
In Mr. Wondrich’s book, he divides the types of “cocktail” into the following categories, “Original”, “Plain”, “Fancy”, “Improved”, and “Old-Fashioned”.
“Original Cocktail”, is ye olde bittered sling, specification of spirits, bitters, sugar, and water. Nutmeg optional.
“Plain Cocktail” is Gum syrup, bitters, spirits, and curacao served on the rocks with a twist of lemon.
“Fancy Cocktail” is Gum syrup, bitters, spirits, and curacao, stirred with ice, and strained into another glass and garnished with a twist of lemon.
“Improved Cocktail” is Gum syrup, bitters, spirits, maraschino liqueur, absinthe, stirred with ice, strained into another glass and garnished with a twist of lemon.
And “Old-fashioned Cocktail” is the “original” served with rocks instead of water and a lemon twist instead of nutmeg.
Anyway, he notes the “Fancy” category sometimes included a frosted rim, a la Crusta, or a top up of champanski. Hey, who would argue? Though, I wonder what sort of individual would say, “Excuse me barkeep, believe I will have a fancy brandy cocktail, thank you!”
As the “Savoy Cocktail Book” seems to have the most bad luck transcribing these pre-prohibition of cocktails, (see the Savoy “Coffee Cocktail” and “Brandy Crusta” for other poorly transcribed examples,) their “Fancy Cocktail” recipe makes almost no sense. I mean, how can you “rub the edges of a glass with lemon syrup”? Just sounds really messy to me. They have also decided to solidify on Cognac and leave out the Curacao. No tremendous loss there.
I’ve sort of gone with the Chicago method for the “Fancy Cocktail” and left it at that.
I like the “Chicago Cocktail” and I like the “Fancy Cocktail.” Guess that makes me some sort of flannel wearing dandy. Woo!
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.
Chicago Cocktail
1 Dash Angostura Bitters
1 Dash Curacao (Senior Curacao of Curacao)
2/3 Brandy (1 1/2 oz Pierre Ferrand Ambre Cognac)
Shake well and strain into cocktail glass. Frost edge of glass with castor sugar and fill with Champagne (Cremant de Limoux, J. Laurens Brut).
Probably a lot easier to frost the glass with caster sugar before you strain the cocktail in to it!
A very nice variation on the champagne cocktail. I’m not normally a fan of the sugar rim, as most cocktails are plenty sweet without the extra sugar. Plus, the sugar tends to make drinking the cocktail a sticky and goopy proposition.
However, in this cocktail, the sugar rim makes for an intersting construction. The liquid itself is somewhat dry, very nearly compelling you to go around the rim sucking the drink through the sugar to experience the whole cocktail. A very cool tension between execution and flavor.
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.
Cecil Pick-Me-Up Cocktail
The Yolk of 1 Egg
1 Glass Brandy (2 oz Pierre Ferrand Ambre)
1 Teaspoonful Castor Sugar
Shake well and strain into medium-size wine glass and fill balance with Ayala (Louis Bouillot, Cremant de Bourgogne Rose ”Perle d’Aurore”, a bit past its prime.) Champagne.
This is quite eggy.
It is tasty, and all. Still the first impression is a big taste of egg yolk.
Later the champagne and brandy make themselves apparent.
Weird, really. A breakfast drink, 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.
Blue Train Special Cocktail
(6 People)
Fill the shaker with cracked ice and pour into it 1 glass of Brandy (1 oz Korbel VSOP) and 1 glass Pineapple Syrup (3/4 oz pineapple juice, 3 tsp superfine sugar, stir to dissolve). Shake carefully, and then add 3 glasses of Champagne (3 oz Segura Viudas Brut Reserva Cava). Give one or two more shakes and serve without further delay.
As usual, I am halving the recipe by assuming two ounces per “glass” and then making half. This one seemed a bit small.
I’ll give decoding this my best.
Blue Train likely candidates.
1) South African luxury train.
2) Train from Paris to Calais, “Le Train Bleu”.
3) “Splendid Belle Epoque restaurant in the heart of the Gare de Lyon railway station.” Also, “Le Train Bleu”.
You may remember a certain Barney Barnato from the Barney Barnato Cocktail. When Barney Barnato died, he left his two year old son an heir to his millions. When this son, (Joel) Woolf Barnato, grew up, he became quite the bon vivant. His enthusiasms included car racing, Bentleys, drinking, and parties. He and his friends were called “The Bentley Boys”. They competed in various European motor races. In fact, Woolf Barnato won the Le Mans race three times out of three starts, a record that has not been beaten to this day.
In March of 1930, Woolf Barnato was at a party in Cannes. Some speculation arose about the speed of the cars among the attendees. Many wondered if it was possible for someone to race the famous express rail, “Le Train Bleu,” and beat it from Paris to Calais. Woolf pooh poohed this idea, and said his custom Bentley could get to London before the train got to Calais. Bets were laid and Woolf wagered 200 pounds he could get to his favorite club in London before The Blue Train arrived in Calais.
The next day, when “Le Train Bleu” left the Paris station, with the assistance of a second driver, Barnato departed simultaneously. Barnato reached Calais the next morning at 10:30 AM, and took his car on the ferry across the channel. He arrived at the Conservative Club on St. James Street 4 minutes before the Blue Train arrived in Calais.
I would guess a champagne cocktail or two might be in order.
From then on he called his custom Bentley “The Blue Train Special”. He even had a bar built into the dashboard.
The cocktail is rather tastier than I expected. Sweet, fizzy, and slightly exotic. Just the ticket for a Bright Young Thing during London’s exuberant 30s.
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.
