Ancestrals Flashcards
How to make an Americano Cocktails
Ingredients:
1 ounce Campari
1 ounce sweet vermouth
Soda water
Preparation: Serve over ice.
Presentation: Glass dependent on amount of soda water, garnish with orange slice
History: The first Americano was served at Caffé Campari in the 1860s under the name Milano-Torino, to identify the origin of the Campari and sweet vermouth. Gaspare Campari’s creation was later renamed the Americano for Primo Carnera, the Italian boxer who was the first non-American to win the US heavyweight boxing championship.
Preparation & Variations: The original vermouth in the Americano was Punt y Mes, made in Turin by the Carpano family. The brand was purchased by Fernet Branca in 2001—which would make the cocktail a Milano-Milano. While the vermouth brand can vary, the amount of soda is more significant. Some use a splash; some don’t use any at all. Others build the drink long with a few ounces of soda. It’s best to ask guests which they prefer.
How to make an Old Fashioned Cocktail?
Ingredients:
2 oz. Spirit(Typically American Whiskey)
2 Dashes of Bitters
1 Sugar Cube
Preparation: Add enough water to the sugar cube to dissolve with muddling. Add bitters and Spirits, stir with ice, and strain over fresh ice.
Presentation: Thick Bottomed Old Fashioned Glass
History: The Old Fashioned and bitters themselves are considered by many to be the origin of the cocktail in America. Originally, the Old Fashioned was what you drank, and not the name by which you ordered it. Sometimes it was referred to as a toddy or a bitter sling. It always started with a sugar cube and a healthy amount of water to dissolve the sugar.
It wasn’t only whiskey that was used in this cocktail, but this was how spirits were consumed if not straight from the bottle. A bartender would mix Gin, Rum, Brandy or Whiskey with a sugar cube, water and their own house made bitters. Bitters were proprietary recipes. They were akin to what we now call decanter bitters-a carafe on the bar with a secret mix of spices and botanicals steeping in rum. The decanter would be topped up with spirit and bitter-ing agents along the way in an almost solera-like manner. It was these house made bitters that were consumed in the coquetille cup at apothecaries.
In the May 6th 1806 issue of the The Balance and Columbian Repository Hudson, NY publishes a reader-submitted letter asking what a cocktail is. In the subsequent week’s issue on May 13th 1806, the editor responded stating that ‘‘It was a potent concoction of Spirits, Bitters, Water and Sugar.” The editor also remarked that it was also referred to a s a bitter sling. In 1833, J.E. Alexander’s Transatlantic Sketches Vol.2 notes that he encountered it in New York City. He described it as being Gin, Rum or Brandy, and including significant water, sugar and bitters. He also mentioned nutmeg as a garnish, which would lead one to believe that he experienced the original toddy.
By the 1860’s liqueurs and juices began to make their way into the cocktail and the Old Fashioned was a way patrons would order drinks without these additions. This cultural shift is highlighted in Dave Wonderich’s Imbibe (2007) and an article published in the Chicago Tribune entitled “The Democracy in Trouble (1880)”, where the Old Fashioned is mentioned as being made with Whiskey, and without the extras. The Old Fashioned does not appear in Jerry Thomas’s 1887 Bardender’s Guide but does appear in Boothby’s The World’s Drinks and How to Mix Them (1908) where he puts forth the recipe above. There is no mention of spirit, but only the brand that the patron requests, and that while Boker’s Bitters was his preference Angostura would suffice.
It is important to note that the addition of water came from an understanding of how to properly enjoy a spirit in a more balanced cocktail, and from a time before refrigeration and the availability of ice. Similarly, the toddy wasn’t originally hot. It was a spiced combination of spirit and sugar dissolved in water.
Preparations and Variations: Today, we find a return to the classic with an Old Fashioned being made with Rum, Mezcal, Bourbon or any other spirit, and only containing sugar, bitters, and water (icemelt). The citrus peel garnish is a recent advent that can be considered a part of the bitters ingredient.
It is important to remember that this cocktail went through a serious evolution. The version including muddled maraschino cherries, orange wedges and ginger ale in a snifter surfaced in the 1930’s after a rumored publishing error in a popular cocktail book skipped a page and included another cocktail’s garnish under the Old Fashioned recipe. Whether this is a true story or not, this variation was popular through most of the 20th century. It may be considered a delinquent now, but your guests may order this version and you should prepare it happily. For anyone other than Julie, Dale, Audrey and Sasha that was tending bar 15-20 years ago, this was how you made an Old Fashioned.
How to make a Pink Gin cocktail?
Ingredients:
2 oz. Plymouth Gin
3-4 dashes Angostura bitters
Preparation: Stir with ice and strain.
Presentation: Cocktail Coupe, Lemon Twist (Optional)
History: The Pink Gin cocktail is generally considered to be a created by members of the British Royal Navy in the middle of the 19th century. By the 1870’s, it became a popular cocktail throughout the UK.
Preparations and Variations: Varying amounts of bitters can be used. The earlier printed versions of the recipe call for one dash, while many prefer a larger dose. Some enjoy ‘rinsing’ the serving glass with bitters, while others will combine the bitters and gin before stirring. There have been different ‘longer’ versions of the Pink Gin which include the addition of ice and water, and the ‘Pink and Tonic’.
How to make a Sazerac Cocktail?
Ingredients:
2 oz. Sazerac Rye Whiskey
5 Dashes Peychaud’s Bitters
Splash of Absinthe
Half of a Sugar Cube
Preparation:
Chill the low ball glass with ice water.
Muddle the sugar cube and a splash of water in a mixing glass
Pour the icewater out of the lowball glass and add absinthe to rinse the glass. The residual water in the glass should cause the absinthe to loosh, and therefore become more aromatic. Add whiskey, bitters and the lemon peel to the mixing glass with the muddled sugar and bitters and stir with ice to chill.
Strain into the absinthe rinsed lowball glass.
Presentation: Lowball Glass
History: In 1850, Sewell Taylor sold his Merchant Exchange Coffee House to Aaron Bird so that he could begin an import business. One of Taylor’s imported products was Sazerac de Forge et Fils Cognac. Bird purchased bitters from Antopin Peychaud’s apothecary, and Cognac from Taylor and served the Sazerac in his newly re-named Sazerac Coffee House. The Sazerac cocktail is known as the very first branded cocktail.
According to Arthur Stanley’s Famous New Orleans Drinks and How to Mix ‘em (1997), the Sazerac Coffee House changed hands many times. In 1870, Thomas Handy purchased the Sazerac Coffee House and changed the recipe to include whiskey. The growing phylloxera epidemic was driving up Cognac prices, and the main reason why Handy switched his Sazerac recipe to use whiskey. The Cognac-Rye blend version lasted only a short while before the cocktail became one of Rye Whiskey and Absinthe.
Before Handy died in 1889, he recorded his recipe and it appears in Boothby’s The World’s Drinks and How to Mix Them(1908).This is the recipe that we have included above.
1912 brought the US Absinthe ban, and it was replaced by anise flavored liqueurs. Herbsaint-which translates to worm wood-was a Pastis marketed as being made according to an old French recipe first produced in 1934, and became the favorite Absinthe replacement.
The Sazerac’s riff on the original whiskey or cognac cocktail of spirit, sugar, water and bitters is known to be the first cause for patrons uninterested in something new to order a drink the “Old Fashioned Way”.
Preparation and Variations: The recipe and the preparation above is taken from what is considered to be the first recorded recipe of the Sazerac. There is no published recipe that uses cognac, only old text.
This recipe calls for the addition of water when muddling the sugar cube. Today, many bartenders like to add the bitters instead. The original recipe calls for 2 dashes of bitters, and today many bartenders like to use more. The chilling of the glass, and the absinthe rinse has never changed. And the lemon peel is sometimes used as a garnish rather than being stirred with the ingredients and discarded.
Your guest may only know the Sazerac as a Rye Whiskey cocktail. If you choose to offer different versions, be sure to ask your guest for their preference in a way that doesn’t alienate them for not knowing the variations.
