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Algonquin Club Cocktail

Jump to: Description | History | Short Script Instructions | Full Recipe and Instructions

Short Script Instructions for One Portion

Into a mixing pitcher goes:

• 1 teaspoonful wormwood bitters
• ¼ fl-oz. 50° Brix simple syrup
• 1 jiggerfull old-style genever

Stir through ice. Strain into a chilled Cocktail goblet. Garnish with twisted lemon zest.

Full Recipe for One Portion

Have the folowwing items:

Service-ware

• 4½ fl-oz. glass Cocktail goblet
• 4-inch beverage napkin

Tools

• cuting board
    #1: composite board (no plastic)^*
• paring knife
    #1: culinary school issue^*
• glass mixing pitcher^*
   (Yarai^tm or similar)
• teaspoon measure
   [~5 ml.]
• jigger-and-pony measure
   [2 fl-oz. by 1 fl-oz. / ~60 ml. by ~30 ml.]
• 3-to-1 split pony
   [¾ fl-oz. by ¼ fl-oz. / ~22.5 ml. by ~7.5 ml.]
• ice scoop
• stirrer
   (stainless-steel chopstick^* - or long, narrow spoon)
• Hawthorne strainer

Ingredients

• lemon (whole, for zest-cutting)
   (Citrus limon: Eureka or Santa Theresa)
• wormwood bitters
   : Jeppson's™ Malört; or any malört from Sweden
• 50° Brix simple syrup
• old-style genever (oude, zeer oude, or geript)
    #1: Boomsma™ Oude;
    #2: Rutte™ Oude;
    #3: Ransom™ "Old Tom Gin" [sic]
• method ice (also called 'cracked ice')
   (half the size of service ice)
  

Instructions

1. Chill the cocktail goblet.
2. Cut a ~1” wide and ~3” long strip of lemon zest with minimal pith and reserve it.
3. Set the mixing pitcher in the work area. Into it goes:
• • wormwood bitters — 1 teaspoonfull
   [1 thumbdash / ~5 ml.]
• • simple syrup — ¼ ponyfull
   [¼ fl-oz. / ~7.5 ml.]
• • old-style genever — 1 jiggerfull
   [2 poniesfull / 2 fl-oz. / ~60 ml.]
4. Set the chilled, empty goblet in the work area.
5. Take the mixing pitcher to the ice. Into it is added:
• • method ice — ⅔ fill
6. Set the mixing pitcher back in the work area.
7. Smoothly stir the ingredients for at least thirty seconds to mix and chill-dilute without letting aeration bruise the velvet of the liquor.
8. Fit the Hawthorne strainer into the mixing pitcher and strain the drink through the strainer into the goblet.
9. Garnish the drink with:
• • lemon zest (reserved in step #2) — 1 strip
   (twisted zest-side-down over the drink, rubbed on the rim, and put into the drink).
10. Serve the drink on the napkin.

Description

Note that in the photograph above, the Algonquin Club Cocktail, being a plain Cocktail, will fill the goblet to higher than the regualr chill line for fancy Cocktails. This is due to the added simple syrup – and also due to the teaspoonful of bitters (~5 ml.) instead of the normal two dashes (~1.25 ml.).

Compare and contrast with the Genever Cocktail, the Holland Cocktail, the Algonquin Hotel Cocktail, and the Algonquin Hotel Blossom.

History

The Cocktail Book. Boston; L.C. Page, 1901

This drink was a specialty of the Algonquin Club in Boston, opened in the year 1888. It predates any of the drinks associated with the Algonquin Hotel of New York, opened in the year 1902.

An intersting note about the source is that the title of the 1901 book is no 1930's-style gloss. It is a book focused only on recipes for true Cocktails.

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