Vintage Cocktails #15: The Brandy Crusta

The Brandy Crusta. Perhaps one of the most important cocktails of the late 1800 to early 1900′s. This family of cocktails, a fancy version of the venerable cocktail formulation of sugar, spirits, bitters, and water, eventually faded into obscurity in favor of simpler drinks.  However, from the Brandy Crusta we were given the Sidecar, and from the Sidecar we were given the Margarita, one of the most popular cocktails worldwide.

The recipe as follows taken from Jerry Thomas’s Bartender’s Guide (1862)

Brandy Crusta
1 lemon
1/2 tsp Lemon Juice
Sugar
2 oz Cognac
1 tsp Orange Curacao
1 dash Boker’s Bitters

• Cut the lemon in half
• Pare the full peel off half and squeeze juice from lemon
• Moisten glass rim with juice and rim with sugar
• Insert the lemon peel into the glass
• Mix the liquors in a cocktail shaker of ice.  Shake and strain into the prepared glass
• Add 1 small lump of ice, and serve.

Since Boker’s Bitters has been unavailable for many years, Angostura or Orange bitters may be used.

Vintage Cocktails #13: The East India Cocktail

This next cocktail is an interesting one, in that there is some confusion around the name and ingredients of this very old drink. First appearing in the New and Improved Bartenders’ Manual (1882), the original recipe calls for the use of pineapple syrup. Some recipes also called for chunks of pineapple to be added. By the 1930′s the drink had dropped the maraschino as evidenced by The Savoy Cocktail Book. Also found in the Savoy, is a drink called the East Indian Cocktail, which contains sherry and vermouth, and later drops the “n” and becomes another version of the East India Cocktail. Shown below is the original recipe as credited to Harry Johnson, with the substitution of raspberry syrup for the pineapple syrup.

East India Cocktail
3 oz Brandy
1/2 oz Raspberry Syrup
1 Dash Angostura Bitters
1 Tsp Orange Curacao
1 Tsp Maraschino Liqueur

Obviously this is a strong drink, and is simply a dressed up spirit, so the quality of the spirit will reflect on the quality of the drink. I chose Hennessy for my brandy as I feel it is a dryer spirit than some others and would pair better with the raspberry and curacao. It makes for an enjoyable cocktail and the raspberry pairs nicely with the brandy. I will try the original recipe with the pineapple, but I think the raspberry will remain preferable to me.

MxMo: Vintage Cocktails #11: Fish House Punch

Try as I might, I have never been prepared for a mixology monday.  I always know about it for weeks  and then forget, clamoring at the last minute to put something up.  This month is similar in that I am  sitting here, at 9pm mixing up my beverage.  However, I have known for a while what I wanted to put  up.  This month’s MxMo is hosted by Mike at Hobson’s Choice, and his theme is Punch.  As  I am  working through Vintage Spirits, I noticed that there were several punches listed, and since I am making each and every drink in the book, I thought it was only fitting that this entry combine the two.  First off, lets look at what punch is.

Punch is a loanword from Hindi panch and the drink was made from five different ingredients: spirit, sugar, lemon, water, and tea or spices.  Sounds very similar to the definition of a cocktail.  The drink was brought back from India to England by the sailors and employees of the British East India Company in the early seventeenth century, and from there it was introduced into other European countries.  The term punch was first recorded in British documents dating back to 1632. At that time, most punches were of the Wassail type, or with a wine or brandy base, but by around 1655, when Jamaica came out with rum, the ‘modern’ punch was born and by 1671, there were references to punch houses.

Perhaps one of the most famous punches, supposedly partaken by many of the founding fathers of our nation, was created at the Schuylkill Fishing Company also known as the “Fish House”.  Out of that famed gentlemen’s club comes the Fish House Punch.  The Fish House Punch recipe has had many variations over the years, but I will go with the one listed in Vintage Spirits.  A similar recipe can be found in Jerry Thomas’s Bon Vivant’s Companion.

Fish House Punch
2 Quarts Jamaican Rum (Appleton 12yr)
1 Quart Brandy (Hennessy VS)
1/2 Pint Peach Brandy
1/2 Pint Maraschino Liqueur
1 Quart Green Tea
1 Pint Lemon Juice
1 Lb Powdered Sugar
1 Bottle Champagne
Serve over ice.

Maybe not obvious, but I did not mix the large recipe up for this post, but instead mixed up a batch for about 5 drinks.
The punch is very forward on the rum, but pairs excellently with the brandy. The fruit flavors linger in the background, with the maraschino adding the small amount of bitterness to keep the drink in balance. All in all, a great concoction which is historically accurate to the origins of punch, and which may see an appearance at my next party.

You can find the round up for this month’s MxMo here

Vintage Cocktails #6: The Delicious Sour

This next drink first appears in the 1892 book The Flowing Bowl by William Schmidt. Apparently Schmidt loved to create his own drinks with odd and questionable ingredients, and only occasionally came up with a winner, and this cocktail is definitely a winner!

None of the ingregents in this book are really rare, or unusual in my book. Sure, it uses an egg white, but to me that has just become part and parcel to a great cocktail. I’m not sure I can really even enjoy a sour without that old school layer of foam on the top. Anyhow, the drink does contain Applejack, which I think can be classified as America’s original native spirit. A distillate of hard cider, Applejack is a much bolder “version” of Calvados, the French apple brandy. Applejack, technically is a brandy, but tastes, acts, and is used more like a whiskey. While there were once many distilleries producing this product, now there are few.

Laird & Company of New Jersey is the sole remaining company producing applejack. They make two versions, a generic version of apple spirits mixed with neutral grain spirits, and a bottled-in-bond product. Get the latter if you can find it. Clear Creek Distillery in Oregon also makes an apple brandy that is quite bold, and I think can be subbed for the Applejack if need be.

The Delicious Sour
2 oz Applejack
2 oz Peach flavored Brandy
1 oz Lime Juice
1 Egg White
1 tsp Sugar
Top with Soda Water

The Delicious Sour upon first sip gives a great apple flavor, followed by a rich peach taste, and has a long finish of the sour, flavored again by apple. It is not harsh, in fact, despite that there are 4 oz of liquor, I could barely taste any alcohol at all. Really a splendid drink, and one that I think I will enjoy often. Or at least will press upon others until they give in!