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.

Vintage Cocktails #12: The Communist Cocktail

The Communist Cocktail
1 oz London Dry Gin
1 oz Orange Juice
3/4 oz Lemon Juice
1/2 oz Cherry Heering

To me this was simply a good drink, not great. I enjoyed it to be sure, but it just did not wow me. I guess that’s ok, not every drink can be a love or a hate, there have to be some in the middle ground. The orange juice provides the backbone to this drink in my opinion. Perhaps if I had used fresh squeezed orange it might have been better, but nonetheless I tried. The gin plays a nice aromatic role in the beginnings of the drink followed up by the cherry heering on the finish. The lemon juice definitely keeps the drink in balance by tempering the sweet flavors of the orange and cherry heering.

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 #8: The Bebbo Cocktail

Next up we have the Bebbo Cocktail. Based upon the Bee’s Knees Cocktail, this drink is another variation on a classic sour formula. It is exactly the same as the Bee’s Knees with the addition of some OJ. Instead of using sugar or simple syrup for the sweetener, we will be using honey. The secret here is to heat the honey to lessen its viscosity and then dissolve the honey in the other ingredients before shaking with ice.

The Bebbo Cocktail
1 1/2 oz Gin
1 oz Lemon Juice
1/2 oz Honey
2 teaspoons Orange Juice
Garnish with a cherry

Vintage Cocktails #10: The Blood and Sand

The Blood and Sand is an interesting cocktail in that it uses Scotch. Scotch is notorious for not playing well with other liquids, and as such, not many drinks call for the use of Scotch. However, in Vintage Cocktails, Ted Haigh lists 4 of them, the Blood and Sand perhaps being the most well known.

Blood and Sand
1 oz Scotch
1 oz Orange Juice
3/4 oz Cherry Brandy
3/4 oz Sweet Vermouth

This drink is a great example of how you can take 4 things that seemingly have no connection, and turn them into something great. And while I liked the recipe as provided, my orange juice was a little weak on the flavor, and I would dial down the vermouth just a tad.

Vintage Cocktails #7: The Aviation

Much can be said about the Aviation cocktail. First appearing in Hugo Ensslin’s Recipes for Mixed Drinks (1916), This is a drink that has many variations, and is one of the drinks that started the classic cocktail renaissance. The original recipe is similar to the one I have posted below, with one exception. The original drink called for the addition of crème de violette, a violet liqueur that can be difficult to find. Harry Craddock’s Savoy Cocktail Book (1930), omitted the crème de violette, whether on purpose or by accident, and for the most part the drink has been made without it ever since.

The other unique ingredient in the Aviation is Maraschino Liqueur, a bittersweet, clear liqueur flavored with marasca cherries, which are grown in Dalmatia, Croatia, mostly around the city of Zadar and in Torreglia (near Padua in Northern Italy). The liqueur’s distinctive earthy flavor comes from the marasca cherries, and the distillate is allowed to mature for two years in Finnish ashwood vats, and is then diluted and sugared. The two most popular brands are Luxardo and Maraska.

The Aviation
2 1/2 oz Gin
3/4 oz Lemon Juice
2-3 dashes Maraschino Liqueur
Lemon twist garnish

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!

Vintage Cocktails #5: The Blinker

The Blinker
2 oz Rye Whiskey
1 oz Grapefruit Juice
1 tsp Raspberry Syrup

This drink is a great twist on the classic sour formula. The less tart grapefruit provides the sour, but not overwhelmingly so, and the raspberry syrup adds the sweet. At first glance, I was a little apprehensive about the fruit combinations, however it turned out to work pretty well.

The secret, I think, is in the juice. For my first attempt at this drink, I went with a white grapefruit juice because that it was I had sitting around the house. It made a decent drink, but lacked that “sparkle” that I think pink grapefruit would provide. All in all a pretty decent cocktail, and one that I will probably add to my whiskey based list.

For the raspberry syrup, (which can be hard to find by the way) I used Smucker’s Red Raspberry Syrup. It has a great taste and viscosity, which works great in cocktails. It is available in my area at Fred Meyer stores.

Vintage Cocktails #4: The Blackthorn

So apparently going through the book in order is out, as some ingredients are proving difficult to acquire, and some just make sense to do together.

Henceforth comes the Blackthorn. Since I had the bottle of Dubonnet opened, I figured I might as well use it while it was good.

The Blackthorn Cocktail
1 1/2 oz Gin
1/2 oz Dubonnet
1/2 oz Kirschwasser

This drink is not a winner for me. It was a fine, well balanced drink, just not suited to my tastes.