Hell Cocktail
(6 People)
Shake (or stir, what does it matter?) 3 glasses of Cognac (1 1/2 oz Cerbois VSOP Armangnac) and 3 glasses of Green Crème de Menthe (1/2 oz Brizard White Creme de Menthe). Serve with a pinch of red pepper (Cayenne Pepper) on each glass.
Glasses are, of course, 2 ounces. 12 ounces, total, for 6 people, makes it 2 oz per serving.
A half an ounce of Creme de Menthe seemed like plenty to me so I upped the Brandy.
I put it in a liqueur glass, because, frankly, this is a shooter.
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.
Depth Charge Brandy Cocktail
Depth Charge Brandy Cocktail (6 People)
Carefully shake together 2 1/2 glasses of Brandy, and the same amount of Calvados to which has been added 2 dessertspoonsful of Grenadine and 4 of Lemon Juice.
Adapted For 1.
Generous 1 oz of Maison Surrenne Petite Champagne Cognac
Generous 1 oz Clear Creek Apple Brandy
Teaspoon Homemade Grenadine
Juice 1/4 Lemon
Shake and strain into cocktail glass.
The Cognac is really the dominant element here, with the other ingredients playing supporting roles. Really an enjoyable cocktail, being much more spirit forward than the traditional Sidecar or Jack Rose.
I guess I am puzzled as to what it might have to do with the preceding “Depth Charge Cocktail“.
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
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.
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.
Cherry Blossom (6 people)
To a glass half full of cracked ice add a tablespoon of dry Curacao (dash senior Curacao of Curacao), one of Lemon Juice (1 TBSP fresh), one of Grenadine (Fee’s American Beauty Grenadine), 2 1/2 glasses of Cherry Brandy (1 oz Cherry Heering Liqueur) and 2 of brandy (1 oz Pierre Ferrand Ambre Cognac).
Shake thoroughly and serve very cold.
I’ll admit I increased the ratio of lemon here and decreased the Curacao, when re-doing the cocktail for 1 person.
It just seemed like it was going to be waaay too sweet if I left the ratio as is.
As made, it tastes pretty much like drinking a glass of cold cherry juice.
That’s not bad; but, it really doesn’t seem much like a cocktail. More like the missing link between the Sidecar and the Shirley Temple.
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.
Apricot Cocktail (Dry)
(6 People)
Cut 2 Apricots (1 Apricot) in half, break the stones* and let the whole soak for 2 hours in a glass and a half of Cognac (2 oz Korbel VSOP Brandy). Add two teaspoonfuls of Peach Bitters (1 tsp. Fee’s Peach Bitters), 2 glasses of Gin (2 oz Beefeater’s Gin) and 2 glasses of French Vermouth (2 oz Noilly Prat Dry Vermouth). Shake well and strain into cocktail glass. (Garnish each glass by dropping in a thin, ripe peach wedge.)
The amounts in the parenthesis are for 2 relatively modern size drinks instead of 6 tiny 1930s era drinks.
This is a pretty odd bird of a cocktail. An apricot scented Martini? I can’t think of many other fruit flavored cocktails that aren’t at least somewhat sweet. Still, all in all quite pleasant. If it’s apricot season, and you like Martinis, give it a try.
*I will note that the kernels of all members of the rose family, including apricots, contain cyanogenic glycosides which on ingestion release hydrogen cyanide. The amounts of these chemicals vary from plant to plant and species to species. Bitter almonds generally contain the most, and eating 50-70 bitter almonds in one sitting is enough to be fatal for an adult human. I would not recommend sitting down and drinking 50 Apricot cocktails at once. Fortunately, in most people, small amounts of these chemicals are rapidly broken down by their livers, and do not build up over time, so small doses are generally regarded as safe.
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.
