Grapefruit Au Cointreau

It is my intention to not only post cocktails I'm exploring, but comestibles as well. When those two categories are combined, better and better.  The following is an example of both and makes for a marvelous breakfast dish.

 

Slice one cocktail grapefruit in half. Pour 1 Tablespoon Cointreau over each side and adorn with maraschino cherries, if desired. The grapefruit halves can be refrigerated for several hours, or overnight. Serves two.

Adapted from The Gourmet's Guide to Dining and Drinking, a Cointreau advertisement recipe booklet from the 1950s.

Blood Orange French 75s

Blood Orange French 75s are an exquisite, temporal concoction, as blood oranges are only available in the winter months (as in, January and February). To make them: extract the juice from one or several blood oranges, and create a mixture that is half blood orange juice, half dry gin. Shake with ice in a cocktail shaker. Pour into champagne flutes, filling one-third to half full. Top off glasses with champagne. Imbibe and enjoy.

This is a wonderful solution for all sorts of social gatherings, from dinners to improvised birthday parties.

Corpse Reviver No. 2

Whenever you feel lifeless and find your corpse in need of revival, I highly recommend trying out the following concoction: the Corpse Reviver No.2 from the 1930 Savoy cocktail book.

1/4 Wine Glass Lemon Juice

1/4 Wine Glass Kina Lillet (lillet blanc, for those mixing in the 21st century)

1/4 Wine Glass Cointreau

1/4 Wine Glass Dry Gin

1 Dash Absinthe

Place in a cocktail shaker with ice and shake vigorously; strain into a cocktail glass.

According to Harry Craddock, compiler of the Savoy Hotel Cocktail Book, "Four of these taken in swift succession will unrevive the corpse again." From experience, I would also like to note that the reviving effects wear off after one hour.

Champagne Cocktail

I first became aware of the existence of the Champagne Cocktail when I first became aware of the film Casablanca.  Set in French Morocco during the second World War, it's a gorgeous melodrama with everyone in it, from Bogart and Bergman to Lorre and Veidt.  The subject of the film is the refugee trail that the war brought about, so upon reflection, it takes a stretch of the imagination to believe that these people have time to sit around Rick's Café Américain and drink champagne cocktails, but they do. Paul Henreid's character orders one at the bar as a cover for the fact that he's meeting with a member of the Free French.

Place a sugar cube in a champagne glass and saturate with Angostura bitters. Crush the sugar cube and make sure it is well combined with the bitters. Fill glass with chilled champagne, and imbibe. Pairs well with celebrations of all kinds and the film Casablanca.


It's also worthwhile to quote The Savoy Cocktail Book from 1930 with recipes compiled by Harry Craddock:


Put into a wine glass one lump of Sugar, and saturate it with Angostura Bitters. Having added to this 1 lump of Ice, fill the glass with Champagne, squeeze on top a piece of lemon peel, and serve with a slice of orange.

The French 75, Part I.

The French 75 is a historic cocktail which, strangely enough, can be made with gin and Champagne, or Cognac and Champagne. It was invented either during World War I or immediately thereafter, and it is named after the French 75mm field gun. As far as I can tell, the combination of gin and Champagne predates the Cognac and Champagne version that is perhaps more familiar today. (I intend to examine the question more closely, but as the 1930 Savoy cocktail book gives the recipe as involving gin and Champagne with no variations, I am inclined to believe that the Cognac is a later addition.)

That said, I will now furnish you with the French 75 recipe with Cognac, because it is well worth sharing:

1 ounce Cognac

a teaspoon of sugar

1/2 ounce fresh lemon juice

Champagne to fill the glass

Combine the Cognac, sugar, and lemon juice in a cocktail shaker and shake vigorously. Strain into a well-chilled Champagne glass, and fill to the top with Champagne.

More on other variations later, especially the classic gin and Champagne version. Also, in the near future: Corpse Revivers.

Death in the Afternoon

Death in the Afternoon is a novel, as well as a cocktail, by Ernest Hemingway. The cocktail consists of absinthe and Champagne, and was named after the book. According to Absinthe Online its origin is as follows:

A recipe verified in the 1935 humoristic celebrities' cocktail book titled
So Red the Nose, or Breath in the Afternoon edited by the famous journalist and author Sterling North and Carl Kroch.
Hemingway wrote: "This was arrived at by the author and three officers of the H.M.S. Danae after having spent seven hours overboard trying to get Capt. Bra Saunders' fishing boat off a bank where she had gone with us in a N.W. gale."

In his article Trying to Clear Absinthe’s Reputation for The New York Times, Harold McGee gives Hemingway's original recipe:

Death in the Afternoon

Pour one jigger absinthe into a Champagne glass. Add iced Champagne until it attains the proper opalescent milkiness. Drink three to five of these slowly.



We do not recommend actually drinking three to five of these, unless your intention is suicide in the afternoon. Additionally, we do not recommend breaking out serious Champagne for this cocktail; a nice sparkling wine will do. Pick something low in acidity and not too dry. We find that Asti Spumante performs admirably.


This is how much absinthe we use, not even a third of what Hemingway recommends. One jigger (1.5 ounces, 44 mL) is vastly more than enough absinthe; we use about a third of an ounce, and we are people who deeply enjoy absinthe. If this is your first time trying an absinthe cocktail, or you do not have a strong constitution where absinthe is concerned, I recommend putting just a drop or two in the glass and swirling it around to cover the sides before pouring in the sparkling wine. We used Absinthe Duplais Verte here, and enjoyed it immensely.

An Old-Fashioned Old Fashioned

We decided to make Old Fashioned cocktails the other night, after we discovered that we had all the necessary ingredients. The recipe originates from George J. Kappeler's formidable book Modern American Drinks: How to Mix and Serve All Kinds of Cups and Drinks, published in 1895.

Old-Fashioned Whiskey Cocktail

Dissolve a small lump of sugar with a little water in a whiskey glass; add two dashes Angostura bitters, a small piece of ice, a piece lemon peel, one jigger whiskey. Mix with small bar spoon and serve, leaving spoon in glass.

A jigger is equal to 1.5 ounces and 44 milliliters.


Everything assembled; we realized that the maraschino cherries were not necessary for the 1895 version after we took the photograph. You can include them if you like, but we garnished with the lemon peel alone.

Before we put in the whiskey. As demonstrated above, we obviously used Bourbon whiskey. Kappeler's recipe doesn't specify what sort to use, but Bourbon is traditionally held to be what one puts into an Old Fashioned.

In conclusion,

A good drink at the proper time
Has a welcome in every clime

-George J. Kappeler, Modern American Drinks: How to Mix and Serve All Kinds of Cups and Drinks, 1895.