The Bengal Cocktail

Its that time again..... Mixology Monday! And this time Metagrrrl is hosting, and the theme is 19th Century Cocktails.

Now, I don't have much of a library for cocktail books. The Internet is almost useless for searching for cocktail recipes, unless you know exactly what you are looking for so you can exclude everything else. And, when I do find older recipes I have a hard time breaking out of the Tiki-Drink frame of mind, which makes thinking about specific ratios of '20 drops' of an ingredient hard to figure. But! All of that is kind of the reason for Mixology Monday in the first place, trying something new. So.....

My one good book that has recipes that qualify for this months theme.....
Cakes & Ale
by Edward Spencer.


A fun book that Andy got for me at the Antique Show in Palm Beach (you have to go in the winter!) that focuses mostly on food, dinner and its preparation mostly. In the back, second to the last chapter, is a collection of recipes from sources known and unknown. I got really excited because there is a recipe for Orgeat that I still want to make, but that will be a future entry here. Anyway.....

I am flipping through the recipes and spot a recipe for the Bengal Cocktail. Now, I just read earlier today that Darcy over at the Art of Drink posted the same cocktail. But wait, its the same in name only! OK, closer review, its almost the same. But not quite. OK, its only sort of like it......

The Bengal Cocktail:


Fill tumbler half full of crushed ice. Add thirty drops of maraschino, one table-spoonful of pine-apple syrup, thirty drops of curacoa, six drops of angostura bitters, one wine-glassful of old brandy. Stir, and put a shred of lemon peel atop.

Or, in the modern format for presentation:

30 drops Maraschino

30 Drops Curacao

1 tablespoon Pine-Apple Syrup

6 drops Angostura Bitters

1 Wine-glassfull Old Brandy.

Stir in a wine goblet with half-glass of crushed ice. Garnish with lemon.


First, the recipe:

I don't have 'good' Old Brandy. I have some good brandy, but it is Extra-Fine, not Extra-Old, so it is much sweeter that what I believe this recipe called for. And then, Drops? I think Darcy had the same issue trying to figure out how to pour that on the modern bar. I cheated and pulled out the eye-dropper and started counting.

If this recipe is as old as the book lead me to believe, Pineapple had to have been a pretty exotic flavor for a cocktail and I am guessing not something every bar has sitting around waiting to be used. I could be wrong, its just a guess.

And, poking around on the internet, I find a variety of variations on this recipe, the strangest includes apple and orange juice. That is the greatest challenge with researching 'older' drinks like this, unclear authorship, conflicting and/or competing stories of genesis. Which one is 'THE' cocktail? Well, as soon as I find the right size batteries for the Time-Machine I'll ask around myself.

Then, the cocktail:



What is it like? Well.... pretty good actually. A bit sweet for my tastes, but that may be my brandy selection more than the actual drink. It is a beautiful reddish color in the glass, the dark of the bitters really bring out the color of the brandy, and the contrast of the bright of the lemon, visually exciting and really makes you want to pick this one up.



The end result:

I can recommend this one as it stands. I will be playing with it to see if I can tame the sweetness for my palate. I am going to have to spend a bit more time looking at Brandy's at the local package store.

Mixology Monday - Reminder

Ready?

Set!

Hit the books! The net! Wherever you get your ideas for the bar. Mixology Monday is soon.

Check out Kaiser Penguin for more detail.


Hmmmm..... overly potent drinks.... I think I have a couple to fit the bill

Just Cocktails

Just Cocktails
Originally uploaded by chipandandy

I was going to try for a Trifecta... Raiders of the Lost Cocktail, Mixology Monday, and Repeal Day. Not because I am lazy and only want to prepare one drink, but instead because I drink I wondered if I was up to the challenge...

I have a drink that includes includes Benedictine, qualifying for Raiders of the Lost Cocktail. And, it includes Creme de Roses, which is another ingredient lost to the sands (and livers) of time. I have a drink I suspect, but can not confirm, is a pre-prohibition recipe. The tome I found it in was published six years after Repeal Day, but the collection of recipes has got to be mostly from before and during. The style of the recipes, the ingredients used, the whole presentation, they all speak to something that survived 'the dry years.'

Lastly, I have a drink to celebrate Repeal Day that would be appropriate to the time. And even if it isn't appropriate for the time, it should be tasty enough to enjoy now.


I offer the Maiden's Kiss.

• 1 measure Creme de Roses
  
• 1 measure Curacao
  
• 1 measure Maraschino
  
• 1 measure Yellow Chartreuse
  
• 1 measure Benedictine

There are no assembly instructions for this, but most everything in the book is shake and strain in to a cocktail glass. I see no reason why this one would be different.

Well, I cant offer a picture of the final drink because I had to fake some of the ingredients. The resulting cocktail was a horrible color. It tasted good, but I don't think it was what was intended. Creme de Roses is not available so I tried Rose Water. Add to that I only have Green Chartreuse, the end result was something...... different. It has a strange aftertaste that comes from the Rosewater (I think that is where it came from). The Benedictine and Chartreuse play well together each complimenting the herbal qualities of the other and the Maraschino serves to balance the floral notes. The Curacao adds to a wonderful aroma, but I don't see that it does anything specific to the drink. And, using Orange colored Curacao and adding it to Green Chartreuse, well you can imagine why I don't have a picture of the final result.

If anyone would like to offer some feedback on the Creme de Rose I would be most happy. This cocktail sounds like too much fun just to abandon because one of its ingredients is seemingly dead.