Forgotten Cocktails: The Blackthorn Cocktail

Awhile back, I started making my way through Ted Haigh’s book, Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails: From the Alamagoozlum to the Zombie 100 Rediscovered Recipes and the Stories Behind Them, in a series of posts tagged The Forgotten 100.  My original intent was to mix through these recipes in the order which they are presented in the book.  However, due to some of the ingredients being obsolete, hard-to-find, etc., that seemed impossible.  There is good news on the horizon, though.  Thanks to some enterprising folks, a lot of these ingredients are now becoming once again, available to us.

Nevertheless, the first cocktail I made from this book was The Alamagoozlum, which contained genever.  Lo and behold, the folks at Lucas Bols brought Bols Genever to the United States and thus, my foray into the world of Forgotten cocktails had begun.

What is Genever?  Genever, simply put, is a type of gin.  In fact, in my opinion, it is the original juniper-flavored spirit.  However, unlike other types of gin (London Dry, Old Tom, Plymouth), it has a very subtle juniper flavor and is more malty in character.  Recent Twitter traffic and blog-speak has sparked my interest once again in this spirit, and prompted me to substitute Genever for recipes simply calling for gin.  Simply put, as you would substitute gin for vodka in many recipes….do the same for genever when gin is called for.

So…that leads us to The Blackthorn Cocktail.  Now there are many cocktails called Blackthorn, Blackthorne, The Blackthorne….most of which call for Irish Whiskey.  However, this particular recipe is one from Mr. Haigh’s book, and succeeds those previous recipes by seventy years or more.  In this version, we did substitute genever for gin.

The Blackthorn Cocktail (Modified)

• 2 oz Bols Genever
• 3/4 oz Dubonnet Rouge
• 3/4 kirshwasser

Stir with ice in a mixing glass and strain into pre-chilled cocktail glass.  Garnish with a Maraschino Cherry (I used ones I made at home, macerated in kirshwasser and simple syrup).

The drink turned out to be very nice indeed with a beautiful color lent to it by the Dubonnet aperitif and a subtle cherry flavor from the kirshwasser, rounded out by the mouthfeel of the malty genever.  Give this one a try.  If you prefer a little drier taste to the drink, a nice London Dry Gin would work great.  For drinks with a good juniper punch, I like to use Bombay.

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The Forgotten 100: The Alamagoozlum Cocktail

I began a series of posts began a while back, when I made the  announcement that I was going to make all one hundred or so cocktails in the book Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails by Ted Haigh.  This is one of the first books which really thrust classic cocktails onto the scene and started what might be called as an obsession with the rest of us.  Now in it’s second edition, the book is simply enchanting.   I think I’ve waited long enough to start mixing these concoctions, so here goes!   Without further adieu, from recesses of time, comes forth The Alamagoozlum Cocktail.

According to the text, this drink first appeared in  Around the World with Jigger, Beaker and Flask by Charles H. Baker, Jr. in 1939.  Purported to be the creation of one illustrious banker, J.P. Morgan, it packs a wallop but with a sophistication unparallelled in many drinks out there.  The recipe is as follows:

The Alamagoozlum Cocktail

• 1/2 egg white
• 2 oz   Genever
• 2 oz water
• 1 1/2 oz Jamaica Rum
• 1 1/2 oz Green or Yellow Chartreuse
• 1 1/2 oz gomme syrup
• 1/2 oz orange curacao
• 1/2 oz Angostura bitters

This drink calls for some hard-to-find ingredients, but thanks to some enterprising minds out there spirits like Genever are now readily available.  The most difficult ingredient for me to locate was the gomme syrup.  In the book, it suggests using a very rich 2:1 or 3:1 simple syrup.  However, gomme syrup is a simple syrup made with the addition of gum arabic, which gives it a silky feel on the tongue.  There are several good recipes for gomme syrup on the internet.  At A Mountain of Crushed Ice, Tiare Olsen demonstrates a great recipe which I found to be easy to follow and replicate.   The only difference from Tiare’s recipe and the one we made was the addition of a little grain neutral spirits (vodka) to serve as a preservative.

The Alamagoozlum is a strong drink.  This was my first time using Chartreuse in a cocktail.  I was delighted.  The  two ounces of Chartreuse and the healthy dose of Angostura bitters gives this drink a strong herbal bite which gently warms as it goes down. Perhaps the drink would serve well as a winter drink because of its warming properties.  The spiciness reminds me of winter.   The recipe above made two decent sized drinks, perhaps 6 oz each, instead of the three mentioned in the book.

Another first was the egg white.  There are many drinks which call for egg, but I’ve never been brave enough to do it.   I keep going back to memories of the film Rocky, when Sylvester Stallone’s character gulps down a breakfast of raw eggs.   However, through some encouragement from Dr. Cocktail, I went for it.  Never again will I leave egg out of a drink.  Never.    The egg white not only gave this drink a nice ring of foam on top, it also gave it a silky feel in the mouth.

While I tried to be as true to the book and the recommendations that it gives in regards to spirits, I will admit that I did not use Jamaican Rum.  I decided to forego another trip to the liquor store and use Don Q Gold Rum in its place.  I’m not sure if using a true Jamaican rum like Myers or Appleton Estate  would have made a significant difference in the taste, however, because of the herbal intensity of this drink.    This question will have to go unanswered for now.

I suppose you are wondering what’s next.  If you have the book, which you should definitely get (see my previous post on the book), you know the answer.  For those of you who don’t, shame on you.  You’ll just have to hang around awhile.

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Diving Into The Realm Of Forgotten Cocktails (with Dr. Cocktail, that is)

In case you’ve been hiding under a rock, there’s a new revised edition of the collectible Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails by Ted Haigh aka Dr. Cocktail.  The book contains some of the same recipes as the original edition, but adds twenty or so new cocktails to test your mixology skills and liquor cabinet.   If you’re not a cocktail geek already you will be after thumbing through this wonderful addition to any library.  Stunning photos found therein of finished cocktails and cocktail memorabilia, made famous over at CocktailDB.com, are the makings of cocktail porn in all its shining glory.

Relax! Take a cold shower guys.  This book is available everywhere.  I even saw it in a local bookstore in podunk, louisiana. So if I can get it you obviously can.  Of course, there is the land of the internet, where all things are true and above reproach…ok, so maybe I’m blowing too much smoke your way.  Really, it’s online at Amazon.com.  I wholeheartedly recommend this book.  It is the first book in a long time that’s had me really really excited about delving into the classics, trying new recipes and new ingredients.

So let’s jump right in and do something that has obviously been done before.   I worry about this being a knock off of the movie Julie and Julia, but it’s a model worth following.  What better way to sit and reflect on oneself than over a nicely prepared cocktail?

In the upcoming months, we’ll being doing just that…diving into one of the most influential books of our day in cocktail geekdom, Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails, From the Alamagoozlum to the Zombie and Beyond by you know, that Dr. Cocktail guy.  Get your mixing glasses out, because first up is of course, The Alamagoozlum Cocktail.  Don’t worry.  I’m going to give you a couple of days to get the book, so you can mix right along with the rest of the cool people.

Cheers!

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