6 Basic Cocktails & More

According to David A. Embury, as stated in his classic, The Art of Mixing Drinks (1948), there are six basic drinks: the Daiquiri, the Jack Rose, the Manhattan, the Martini, the Old Fashioned, and the Sidecar.

Embury's preferred recipe for each is:

Daiquiri

• 8 parts white Cuban rum
• 2 parts lime juice
• 1 part simple syrup

Shake with lots of finely crushed ice and strain well into a chilled cocktail glass.

Jack Rose

• 8 parts Applejack
• 2 parts lemon juice
• 1 part Grenadine

Shake vigorously with ice and strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with a twist of lemon, if desired. Calvados can be used as a substitute for Applejack.

Manhattan

• 5 parts American whiskey
• 1 part Italian (sweet) vermouth
• dash of Angostura bitters to each drink

Stir with ice, strain into a cocktail glass and serve garnished with a Maraschino cherry.

Martini

• 7 parts English gin
• 1 part French (dry) vermouth

Stir with ice, strain into a cocktail glass, twist lemon peel over the top and serve garnished with an olive, preferably one stuffed with any kind of nut. Embury also states that sherry is a nice substitute for vermouth.

Old Fashioned

• 12 parts American whiskey
• 1 part simple syrup
• 1-3 dashes Angostura bitters to each drink

In an old-fashioned glass, add bitters to simple syrup and stir. Add about 1 ounce of whiskey and stir again. Add two cubes of cracked, but not crushed, ice and top off with the rest of the whiskey. Twist lemon peel over the top and serve garnished with the lemon peel and a maraschino cherry.

Sidecar

• 8 parts Cognac or Armagnac
• 2 parts lemon juice
• 1 part Cointreau or triple sec

Shake vigorously with ice and strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with a twist of lemon, if desired.

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Updating Embury's list, I would drop the Jack Rose and the Old Fashioned, and add the Bloody Mary and the Gin and Tonic.
The Jack Rose is no longer popular and is too close to the Sidecar, substituting Cognac for Applejack, and substituting Cointreau for Grenadine as the sweetener.
The Old Fashioned is too close to the Manhattan: sweet vermouth versus simple syrup.

Gin and Tonic

• 1½ oz. gin
• 3-4 oz. tonic
• lime wedge

In a highball glass add plenty of ice and pour over the gin and tonic. Garnish with a wedge of lime.

Bloody Mary

• 1½ oz. vodka
• 3 oz. tomato juice
• 1 dash lemon juice
• ½ tsp. Worcestershire sauce
• 2-3 drops Tabasco sauce
• Pepper and salt

Shake with ice and strain into old-fashioned glass over ice cubes. A wedge of lime may be added. (For a Bloody Caesar, substitute 5 ounces of Clamato juice for the tomato juice, rim the glass with celery salt and add a celery stalk. You can make your own Clamato by mixing 2½ cups of tomato juice with 1 cup of clam juice.)

Most often the today the glass is rimmed with a spice mixture commercially available as Bloody Mary rimming spice. It can also be homemade with this recipe.

Sidecar - My Recipe (following Harry Craddock's ratio of 2:1:1)

• 2 parts Cognac
• 1 part Cointreau or Triple Sec
• 1 part lemon juice

Shake vigorously with ice in a cocktail shaker and strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with a twist of lemon.


Source: Wikipedia and Mr. Boston Official Bartender's Guide, Warner Books, 1984.

The Sidecar

The first recipes for the Sidecar appear in 1922, in Harry MacElhone's Harry's ABC of Mixing Cocktails and Robert Vermeire's Cocktails and How to Mix Them.

It is thought to have been invented at Harry's New York Bar in Paris around 1920. It was said to be named after a U.S. army captain who always arrived at the bar in a motorcycle sidecar.

It is one of six basic drinks listed in David A. Embury's The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks (1948). In early editions of MacElhone's book, he cites the inventor as Pat MacGarry, "the popular bartender at Buck's Club, London", but in later editions he cites himself. Vermiere states that the drink was "very popular in France.

It was first introduced in London by MacGarry, the celebrated bartender of Buck's Club." Embury credits the invention of the drink to an American army captain in Paris during World War I and named after the motorcycle sidecar that the captain used. Both MacElhone and Vermiere state the recipe as equal parts cognac, Cointreau, and lemon juice, now known as "the French school". Later, an "English school" of sidecars emerged, as found in the Savoy Cocktail Book (1930), which call for two parts cognac and one part each of Cointreau and lemon juice.

Emury recommends the proportions 8:2:1, making a much-less-sweet sidecar. However, Simon Difford, in his book Encyclopedia of Cocktails, notes Harry Craddock's ratio of 2:1:1 in The Savoy Cocktail Book, and then suggests a middle ground between Craddock's recipe and the "French School" equal parts recipe of 3:2:2, calling Embury's daiquiri formula "overly dry" for a sidecar.

The earliest mention of sugaring the rim on a sidecar glass is 1934, in three books: Burke's Complete Cocktail & Drinking Recipes, Gordon's Cocktail & Food Recipes, and Drinks As They Are Mixed (a revised reprint of Paul E. Lowe's 1904 book).

In Harry MacElhone's Harry's ABC of Mixing Cocktails, he use 1:1:1 ratio.

For my recipe, I use the 2:1:1 ratio of Cognac, Triple Sec or Cointreau, and lemon juice. I haven't yet tried it, but I would consider rimming the glass with sugar using lemon juice to moisten the rim.

Source: Wikipedia.

Cocktails Guides

The high times for cocktails seems to be from the turn of the twentieth century, through Prohibition (particularly in the U.S.) and into the 1950s. There has been a resurgence in the early 2000s to today. 

The guides to classic cocktails are a great resource. The current popular guide is Mr. Boston which is available everywhere.

On the history of cocktail recipe books, one of the earliest was Drinks As They Are Mixed by Paul E. Lowe from 1904.

Later guides to appear are Robert Vermeire's Cocktails and How to Mix Them (1922), Harry MacElhone's ABC of Mixing Cocktails (1930), and Jerry Gordon's Cocktail & Food Recipes (1934).

Later to appear is David A. Embury's The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks (1948).

Paul E. Lowe's Drinks as They Are Mixed is available online.
Harry MacElhone's ABC of Mixing Cocktails is available online.
Jerry Gordon's Cocktail & Food Recipes is available online.