1935 Old Waldorf-Astoria Bar Book

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OLD WALDORF-ASTORIA BAR BOOK

Many recipes, however, call only for French Vermouth. Gin was the base, or one of the bases, of approximately one hundred and fifty cocktails-more if the "dry" variants of cocktails are considered as different entities. In mak– ing forty or so, Whiskey was the base. Rum of one sort or another was used only in fourteen; for Bacardi and Jamaica-though the latter was the favorite indulgence of many of our colonial forefathers-had not attained the wide acquaintance among Americans the latter now enjoy. In this book, Cuban and Jamaican drinks of today are taken up exhaustively following the contents of the Old Waldorf Bar Book. Sloe Gin was the base of eleven recipes. There were forty-four whose base was either Brandy or one of a number of cordials. Frequently two or more were mixed. Other bases were Applejack or Apple Brandy, Cal– isaya, Dubonnet, Sherry, Port and Swedish Punsch. During the first two decades of the century, the com– monly accepted American definition of a cocktail was a mixture of Gin and Vermouth with Bitters, iced and shaken. Of course, Whiskey cocktails had their many and a!ident devotees; and the Manhattan, based on Whiskey, was a popular drink. To a big majority, however, Whiskey was something that should be taken neat, or, at most, adul– terated with nothing more than water. In a highball, of course, the latter was aerated. The average Whiskey drinker regarded the mixture of good Bourbon or Rye wi~p anything as a sort of sacrilege-except after the drink had gone down, when, as a rule, he liked to dispatch a small quantity of water in its wake. To many persons, Whiskey cocktails were so much medicine. To such, the ideal combination was Gin and Vermouth. Vermouth alone, as a drink, never won wide favor in this country, but it is