The Sidecar

The sidecar, #5 in my "Embury six" series.

THE SIDECAR

The sidecar was presented by Embury as the classic "must know" brandy drink. Here the choice of cognac or brandy used, and it's flavor profile, drive the proportions of the other ingredients.

Brandy is an ancient spirit, with roots going back to the 12th century. The word brandy is a shortening of "brandywine", which in turn is a derivative from the Dutch word "brandewijn" (which means "burnt wine").

Brandy is certainly my weakest area of knowledge when it comes to the spirit world. I've tended to avoid the whole category and looked to other (and in my mind safer) alternatives to brandy. It's hard to blame anyone for these thoughts after growing up with such disasters as peach brandy, blackberry brandy and the many other artificially created frankensteins that have become popular in the last 50 years.

The more I learn about the "burnt wine", the easier it has become to finally be able to enjoy it.

Armagnac was the first distilled spirit in France, and is made only in the Armagnac region in Southwest of France. It is "single-continuous" distilled in copper stills, and aged in oaken casks from Limousin or Gascony.

Cognac is a term only applied to grape brandy made in the Cognac region of France, and is double distilled in pot stills...and Cognac is what is called for in the original sidecar recipes (along with Cointreau and lemon juice).

The origins of this drink are just as unclear as the first four in the "Embury six" that I have explored. There are two main "origin" stories for this one. There is the "Paris School" and the "London School", each with their own recipe, which I will explore in greater depth later.

A third option, worth keeping in mind, was presented by Dale Degroff in his book "Essential Cocktail".

Dale points out that the word sidecar in the cocktail world refers to a small glass or shot glass that the bar tender keeps for "over-pours". When they miss their mark on their ingredients, and end up with a little left over, they would pour the extra into the "sidecar".

This drink bears a strong resemblance to the "Brandy Crusta", (which hails from New Orleans, and is accredited to a well known Spanish caterer by the name of Joseph Santini around 1852.) There are differences, the crusta calls for bitters and sometimes maraschino and has a sugared rim. Even today, some sidecar recipes include instructions for the sugared rim as part of the garnish.

If bartenders of the day found that the crusta was one of their favorite "overpours" to end up in their "side cars", then it's not too much of a stretch to think that this could be the actual origin of the name.

Since were on a historical journey, let's go ahead and take a look at the two main schools of thought anyway.

The Paris School

The more well known of the two schools, this story has many variables.

Sometime in Paris, during or shortly after World War I, an American Army captain often traveled around in a motorcycle sidecar. One day, when he was under the weather, he requested something that would help him feel better, and the drink was named the "Sidecar", as a tribute to its original patron.

Embury also credits the invention of the drink to an American Army captain in Paris during World War I. He also claimed that the drink was named after the motorcycle sidecar, in which the good captain was driven to and from the little bistro where the drink was born and christened".

I've also read that the captain had the driver bring the motorcycle right up to the bar to order! It then seems to evolve into the captain going to the Ritz Hotel on a regular basis, and this was his favorite drink to ward off the chill of the winter nights. This theory was dramatized in a recent Cointreau advert.

For me, the fact that there is no name associated with the captain, and that there are so many versions of the story out there, it smacks more of legend than fact.

The Paris School Recipe
(1:1:1 ratio)
1 oz Cognac
1 oz Cointreau
1 oz Lemon Juice

This is the earliest known recipe, and it appeared in two books published in 1922; Robert Vermeire's "Cocktails and How to Mix Them", and Harry MacElhone's Harry's "ABC of Mixing Cocktails".






The London School

The story here, is that the sidecar was created at the London Buck's Club in the 1920's. It is most often credited to Pat MacGarry, who was one of the Buck Club's well known bartenders at the time.

Interestingly, in early editions of "ABC of Mixing Cocktails", MacElhone cites the inventor as Pat MacGarry, "the Popular bar-tender at Buck's Club, London" but in later editions, he cites himself.

Vermiere said in his book, "This cocktail is very popular in France. It was first introduced in London by
MacGarry, the celebrated bar-tender of Buck's Club."

So. you have the two books publishing the recipe for the first time using the Paris School recipe, but pointing to the founder of the "London School" as the originator. Isn't that a bit of a sticky wicket.

The London School Recipe
(2:1:1 ratio)
1.5 oz Cognac
.75 oz Cointreau
.75 oz Lemon Juice

The Embury School

Embury cites the motorcycle sidecar in France theory as the origin, but goes on to change the ratio of the drink to that of his daiquiri, or 8:2:1 ratio, making for a very dry, and much less sweet cocktail.

His view was that this drink was a daiquiri with Brandy, replacing the rum, lemon replacing the lime (lemons and limes were interchangeable ingredients for some time) and Cointreau replacing the sugar or simple syrup as the sweetener.

Sidecar à la Embury

(8:2:1 ratio)

1 part (1/4 oz) Sugar Syrup

2 parts (1/2 oz) Lime Juice

8 Parts (2 oz) Brandy or Cognac

The Modern Sidecar.

Over the twentieth century a sugared rim, triple sec and even concentrated lime juice have been called for in the recipe.

The official IBA recipe follows the "Paris school" recipe and calls for the sugared rim, and lemon rind as the garnish.

Though not commonly ordered, many bars have the sidecar or a variation on their menu. The current Death & Company menu (one of the most imitated in the world) lists a sidecar variation with the addition of Orchard Pear brandy and Benedictine.

Esquire's drink database has a wonderful quote from David Wondrich on this drink. Robert Hess has his own versionas well and talked in his video series about how he, Dale DeGroff, Ted Haigh and David Wondrich all had strong opinions on what was the right recipe. They had difficulty settling on one recipe to put in their "Museum of the American Cocktail Pocket Recipe Guide". (That link is here if you are interested.)

So what do the board of directors at the Museum of the American Cocktail (MOATC) tout as their favorites? Here are recipes from each:

Sidecar - Dale DeGroff, Essential Cocktails (MOATC President)
(2:1:1 ratio)
1.5 oz Cognac
.75 oz Cointreau
.75 oz lemon juice
garnish: Flamed orange peel.

Sidecar - Ted Haigh, cocktailDB (MOATC Curator)
(1:1:1 ratio)
1/3 Cointreau
1/3 brandy
1/3 lemon juice
garnish: not specified

as well as this variation
(3:1:1 ratio)
1.5 oz brandy
.5 oz triple sec
.5 oz fresh lemon juice
garnish: none listed

as well as this variation from his book "Vintage Spirits and Forgotton Cocktails"
The Ritz Sidecar
5 parts very old cognac (1.5 oz)
3 parts Cointreau (9/10 oz)
2 parts fresh lemon juice (6/10 oz)
garnish: none listed
"Shake in iced cocktail shaker, strain tremulously in to chilled cocktail glass."

Sidecar - Robert Hess (MOATC Secretary)
(4:2:1 ratio)
2 oz cognac
1 oz Cointreau
.5 oz lemon juice.
garnish: lemon twist

and from the board of advisers


Sidecar (David Wondrich, Esquire)
(2:1:1 ratio)
1.5 oz cognac
.75 oz Cointreau
.75 oz lime juice
garnish: serve in glass rubbed with lemon juice and dipped in sugar.

Sidecar (Gary Regan, Joy of Mixology)
(3:2:1 ratio)
1.5 oz Cognac
1 oz triple-sec
.5 oz fresh lemon juice
garnish: lemon twist in sugar rimmed glass




NOW WHAT?

So....this is obviously a drink to play with, considering that the best minds in the cocktail world, past and present, have been unable to agree on a formula.

Ted Haigh points out in "Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails" that "The beauty of this cocktail is that if it is too strong you just decrease the brandy. Too sweet? Add more lemon juice. Too sour? Add more Cointreau."

Garry Reagan makes his point in the "Joy of Mixology" that since there is so much variance in the cognac and brandy worlds, it's impossible to have "one true recipe".

Take his example of Courvoiser vs. Hennessy, the former being "sweet, round and plump" and the latter needing more triple sec and just a tad more lemon juice to balance out.

My advice? Skip the sugar rim and garnish with a lemon peel. Use the Paris School (1:1:1) for the drier cognacs like Hennessy the London School (2:1:1) for the and sweeter cognacs like Courvoiser as your starting points. Play with the ratios until you dial in a flavor profile that you enjoy.

Happy Experimenting!

Easy Congac and Rum Cold Punch

A little history first...

Punch is making a comeback, for lots of good reasons too! For the full story, pick up Dave Wondrich's new book titled "Punch" - (Penguin, ISBN: 978-0-399-53616-8)

Tales have been coming from the punch bowl for quite a while now. Punch's humble beginnings in the seventeenth century sprang from "necessity" when it was consumed by bored agents of the empire in far off postings as a way to temper the strong "aqua vitae" (and also simply to pass the time).

By using the sugar, citrus and spices that were readily available in India and the islands of the tropics they found that they could tame the raw spirits of the day into something that was more than merely palatable.

It's had quite a journey over the last four to five centuries. It was once a ubiquitous and well practiced art but the pace of modern life eventually caught up with punch. Most people simply didn't have the time to sit around and see a bowl through to the end.

Around the same time (the mid 1800's) cocktails were evolving as mini, made-to-order Punches. See David's book "Imbibe" for that story. Punch use slowly went from a way of life, to a holiday tradition, to the near extinction of present day. That could be changing though...

After recently reading David's"Punch" book, I was inspired to try my hand at one for the family's Thanksgiving feast this year.

I went with the basic "reference" recipe from the book and used a mixture of Martell VS cognac and Smith and Cross Jamaican rum.
THE RECIPE

Step 1  Prepare the "Oleo-Saccharum"

Take a veggie peeler and carefully peel the skin from 3 lemons in long strips. Be sure to avoid as much of the white pith as possible, Save the lemons for juicing and put the peels into a large, non-reactive bowl.

Add 6 oz of sugar.

Use a muddler to mash the peels into the sugar until it is wet with lemon oil.

Now let this rest for a minimum of 30 minutes. Give it an hour if you can. The sugar will continue to draw out the oils from the lemon peel.


Step 2 Preparing the Shrub (or Sherbet)

Juice the lemons and any additional necessary to get 6 oz of strained lemon juice and stir it into the oleo-sacchrum.

Side note: If you are using a rough sugar like a turbinado or demerara then add 6 oz of boiling water to the oleo-saccharum and muddle the sugar until mostly dissolved before adding your lemon juice.

Stir it up and remove the peels with a slotted spoon. You can reserve the peels for garnishing the drinks or do what I did and decorate the ice for the punch bowl with it.

Step 3 Adding the spirits and wines.

I went ahead and strained the shrub once more time after removing the lemon peels and before I added the spirits. Once you have a nice clear shrub, add 750 ml of spirits. You can use whatever you like, I went with the author's suggestion of 9 oz of Smith and Cross Jamaican rum and 16 oz of Martell VS cognac because it sounded so good. Stir, taste, you are now ready to bottle this up for transport or later use.

The concentrated punch ready for bottling. 

Bowl, cups, bottles, nutmeg, ice - check! I'm ready to go.

Step 4 Dilution, Cooling and Spice

When you are ready, add the punch, 4.5 cups of cold water, your ice, and taste. If it's too strong, add more water. Grate a 1/4 to 1/2 of a whole nutmeg over the top. You are done, and no playing "bartender" all night either!

The assembled punch ready to be enjoyed.

As you can see, the punch was a hit!

Going...

...going...

Gone!