Frankenjack

Here's How!, published in 1927, is a title known to collectors for the many recipes that were copied verbatim into the 1930 Savoy cocktail book. Harry Craddock and the book's editors also borrowed from McElhone, Ensslin and Vermeire among others, which puts the book in good company. 

Judge Jr. was the nomes de plume of one Norman Hume Anthony, who spent quite a bit of time in Frank & Jack's according to an article from TIME magazine from June 19,1939.

Apparently, Norman was still the editor of the Judge in 1927 when Here's How was published...he was fired in 1930 though and spent "several months biting his nails" in Frank & Jack's speakeasy.

There's a bit of a"wardrobe malfunction" going on here if you look close.

Eventually he was hired by Publisher John Delacorte to start the very successful "Ballyhoo" publication, described as a "bathroom burlesque of bathroom advertising".

The "Frankenjack" cocktail was among the recipes first published in this book, and as it states in the notes, was named after the proprietors of a "very, very" well-known speakeasy in New York City.

A famous Frank and Jack's speakeasy, which I think we can safely assume is the same establishment, was described in Michael Batterberry's “On the Town in New York” as follows:

More typical was Frank and Jack’s, a jolly place where there were generally a hundred people jammed into a tiny kitchen barely large enough to hold three tables. Among those struggling for air and room enough to laugh might be Jimmy Durante, Pat Rooney, or Peggy Hopkins Joyce. It was Frank and Jack who perfected the gambit of getting rid of one drunk by asking him to assist another out the door. 

The Frankenjack from Here's How by "Judge Jr." as pub'd in 1927

THE FRANKENJACK

1 ounce (30 ml) Gordon's Export gin (or Beefeater)

1 ounce (30 ml) French Vermouth (I used my fav Kina Lillet sub, Cocchi Americano)

1/2 ounce (15 ml) apricot brandy (Marie Brizard "Apry")

1/2 ounce (15 ml) Cointreau

Stir well with ice and strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with an orange twist.

Over the years many recipes have called for this to be a shaken drink. With the absence of citrus however this drink is much better suited to being well stirred.

This drink is basically a Claridge cocktail (sans the chocolate powder dusting) from Harry McElhone's 1922 ABC of Mixing Cocktails. The Frankenjack sounds like something you'd actually order at a bar though, and made for a good story here.

It's a nice drink. Too fruity to be a martini, though that is obviously the base drink here. I suppose if they'd named this 60 years later it would be a "Aprytini" or something "clever" like that. 

The Apry is certainly the dominate flavor, with the Cointreau's orange playing a supporting role only.

Using the Cocchi Americano over a regular dry vermouth gives the drink a nice roundness and silky mouth feel putting this drink more on the sweet side. 

The 47.3% A.B.V. Gordon's Export does a great job of making sure things don't get too sweet, use a good quality, high proof gin for this one for sure.

Little King

Gin, apricot brandy, applejack and lemon juice. That got my attention. Created by a cartoonist, sounded even more interesting. I came across this in the Big Bartender's Book and was surprised it had not caught my eye before. 

Otto Soglow (December 23, 1900 -April 3, 1975)

From Ted Saucier's 1951 title Bottoms Up, and accredited to cartoonist Otto Soglow, this drink was named after a popular comic strip that Otto created for the New Yorker in 1931.

A 32 year old Otto is on the far left, celebrating the end of prohibition in 1933 with some of his fellow cartoonists.

An article in LIFE from 1951 suggested that Soglow and a number of other cartoonists (one is partially visible in the photo above at the right) were brought together to test the properties of waterproof ink; as after being drawn on, the models were doused in water. 

This is also the year Ted Saucier published the Little King recipe in his book Bottoms Up....coincidence? Most likely, but what a great one to document here!

Ted's recipe from 1951 was listed as:

Little King

Juice 1/4 Lemon

1/4 jigger Apricot Brandy

1/4 jigger Applejack

1/2 jigger Gin

Let's assume a 2 ounce jigger so we can get closer to a 3 ounce drink. The 1/4 lemon is trickier - after some experimenting I've found that 1/3 of an ounce makes for a nicely balanced drink.

Little King

1 ounce Plymouth gin

1/2 ounce Apry

1/2 ounce Laird's Bonded Apple Brandy

1/3 ounce fresh lemon juice

Shake with ice and strain into a cocktail glass.

Delicate and dry, the drink is well balanced by the slightly sweet apricot and apple notes. With the lemon juice just right, it walks the line between sweet and sour well, trending on the dry side, but only a bit.

I've also noticed that this drink opens up very well, that is, when I've allowed it to sit that long - which hasn't been often!

Douglas Fairbanks Cocktail

I came across an adaptation of this cocktail  in Jeff Masson and Greg Boehm's uber-treasury of classic drinks, The Big Bartender's Book. 

After trying the recipe a few times and finding it very enjoyable, I started doing a little research and found that there were may variations on this drink out there, and none of them matched the adaptation I was using.

(From the 1935 ed of Sloppy Joe's)

The original recipe is from the classic Cuban cocktail title Sloppy Joe's Cocktails Manual: Season 1934 by Jose Abeal and Valentin Garcia (1934), and this original recipe matched up perfectly with their adaptation. 

Thus proving to me once again, that the Big Bartender's Book is an authoritative and accurate resource. Honestly, if I could only choose one book to have behind the bar, this would be it! 

Here is the recipe as it appears in the Big Bartender's Book:

Douglas Fairbanks Cocktail

2 ounces (60 ml) gin

1 ounce (30 ml) apricot brandy

3/4 ounce (22 ml) lime juice

1/2 ounce (15 ml) egg white

Shake with ice and strain into a flute.

Marie Brizard Apry and Plymouth gin work really well together in this one. Plymouth is a very light and clean gin and when it is combined with the concentrated flavors of the Apry against the bright lime juice, you end up with a very nice cocktail from the "sour" family of drinks.

Add the silky, airy mouth feel you get from the egg white, and you also get a very drinkable and accessible cocktail in the Douglas Fairbanks. One that should be nearly as popular at a cocktail party as Doug himself would have been!

Toreador

Toreador


1 1/2 ounces (45 ml) Tequila
3/4 ounce (22 ml) Apry
3/4 ounce (22 ml) fresh lime Juice


Shake well with ice and strain into a cocktail glass.


Here is another early tequila drink from Tarling's 1937 Cafe Royal Cocktail Book.

The apricot brandy brings a bold, sweet fruit flavor to balance the sour notes from the lime juice making the Toreador more approachable than the Tia Juano.

I went top shelf for this one and used the Ocho reposado from 2008 - and while it made for a very good drink, it was probably overkill.

The really nice thing about this one is that you can use just about any decent tequila you want and get good results.

NOTE: This is also VERY good using Del Meguey Mezcal Vida and lemon juice!!!

Culross

If we are to attribute this drink to the town in Scotland by the same name, it would be pronounced "Coo-ros".

There's not much out there with this rather strange name, so its not a bad bet that this drink was named after the town, or possibly after a patron from Culross that the Harry Craddock era Savoy Hotel Bar honored in the naming of this one.

It does not seem very Scottish in nature, but Culross is a coastal town, and the maritime influenced Scots have been known to enjoy their fair share of rum.

At any rate, this appears first in the Savoy Cocktail book in 1930 with the following instructions:

The Culross Cocktail

The Juice of 1/4 Lemon.

1/3 Kina Lillet.

1/3 Bacardi Rum.

1/3 Apricot Brandy.

Shake well and strain into cocktail glass.

Adopted for modern use you have:

The Culross Cocktail

3/4 oz (22 ml) Havana Club Anejo Blanco rum

3/4 oz (22 ml) Apry

3/4 oz (22 ml) Cocchi Americano

3/4 oz (22 ml) Lemon Juice

Shake well and strain into a cocktail glass.

Since Havana Club is still made in much of the old Bacardi factory, in much the same way, and aged in the exact same spots as the old Cuban Bacardi, it is always your best bet when an old recipe calls out for Bacardi specifically.

If you are unable to use Havana Club, go for Flor de Caña Extra Dry 4 year, a rum that is much closer in character to the original Cuban Bacardi than the modern Barcardi Dry made in Puerto Rico.

The closest thing that we have on the market today to Kina Lillet, is Cocchi Americano (rather than Lillet Blanc.) It is bolder and more spice forward than Lillet Blanc. They are both traditional white aperitif wines, Lillet coming from France and the Cocchi from Italy, and their histories are intertwined.

For some recipes they can be used interchangeably. For other recipes, one works well where the other can be glaringly off. Since this one called for Kina Lillet by name, Cocchi Americano seemed the obvious choice.

This is an interesting mix, you have the Cocchi and lemon juice on side, providing dry and sour flavors. On the other side you have the light, sweet rum and the big flavored Apy.

If you have been able to secure a bottle of Marie Brizard Apry (it can be a challenge to locate) - this is a nice way to use it as it works very well here. It is just sweet enough to make up for the lack of sugar or simple syrup, and its apricot fruit flavor works great with the other flavors here making for a sweet, yet oddly dry mix.