Sour mix is such an overused cocktail ingredient that the Vintage Cocktail book expressly states it won’t be used (but one exception is The Fogcutter). However, homemade sour mix is much different than the sickly sweet stuff you usually get in a bar, so here is the recipe I use:
- 1 cup water
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 cup fresh lemon juice
- 1 cup fresh lime juice
Make a simple syrup with the water and sugar. Off heat stir in the lemon and lime juices
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In our house we almost always have a grapefruit. It’s odd, because while we eat grapefruit we don’t do so very often, and since we always have one sometimes it hangs around past its prime. Thus we refer to it as the “sacrificial” grapefruit.
Due to this new hobby, I tend to have a lot of fresh citrus on hand and I recently bought a new grapefruit to sacrifice. However this time it was to the cocktail gods. Of the four recipes on the list that use grapefruit juice, the one I was most in the mood for was the Palm Beach Special:
Continue readingI counted four cocktails in the list that call for raspberry syrup as an ingredient. In the Resource Guide section of the book, Dr. Cocktail recommends using [Smucker’s Red Raspberry Syrup][1]. Mine finally arrived so I present The Rose:
- 2 ounces dry French vermouth
- 1 ounce kirschwasser
- 1 teaspoon raspberry syrup
Shake in an iced cocktail shaker and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with a maraschino cherry.
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In Chatham County, NC, where I live, we don’t have many options for cocktails. However, the always excellent Oak Leaf restaurant is usually a good place to go (especially on Tuesdays when cocktails are half price). They recently got a new bartender (more aptly “cocktail chef”) named Justin Peregoy who takes cocktails seriously, and he was kind enough to share his recipe for Sherry Baby:
- 1.50 ounces Redemption Rye
- 0.50 ounce Lustau Amontillado Sherry
- 0.25 ounce orange simple syrup
- 2-3 dashes Peychaud’s Bitters
Combine the ingredients in a bar glass, top with ice and stir until the glass is completely chilled top to bottom. Strain into a long stemmed glass and garnish with an orange twist.
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Look, gin is nice. I like gin, and gin makes a great base for many a cocktail. But I was getting a little tired of it so I went in search of a non-gin based drink. I found The Scofflaw:
- 1.50 ounces rye
- 1.00 ounce dry vermouth
- 0.75 ounce fresh lemon juice
- 0.75 ounce real pomegranate grenadine
Shake well in an iced cocktail shaker, strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with a lemon twist.
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Vintage cocktails can call for some odd ingredients. Several in the book reference a liquor called Swedish Punsch. My friend David was kind enough to swing by Binny’s last time he was in Chicago, so I had some on hand and was eager to try it. The first drink I made with it was the Have a Heart Cocktail:
- 1.50 ounces gin
- 0.75 ounce Swedish Punsch
- 0.75 ounce fresh lime juice
- 0.25 ounce real pomegranate grenadine
Shake well in an iced cocktail shaker, strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with a lime wedge
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In my research into vintage cocktails you sometimes come across an ingredient that simply can’t be purchased anymore. In those cases you either search for a substitute or make one. As part of a recipe I need something called “orange tincture”.
- Fill half of a jar with dried orange peel
- Fill remainder of jar with high-proof vodka (such as Smirnoff Blue Label)
Let sit for two months. Strain and filter
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