Stone Fence, or Sampson
Early versions of the Stone Fence often traveled under the name Sampson, a mid-eighteenth century mixture of New England rum and hard cider, served warm. The later eighteenth century brought the Stone Fence to the fore, the room temp version that fueled Ethan Allen and the Green Mountain Boys through their raid on Fort Ticonderoga. By the time Jerry Thomas wrote his book in 1862, it had morphed yet again; his version calls for bourbon and sweet (non-alcoholic) cider.
Dorothy Jones’s Coffeehouse Punch
Carrying on the tradition of having a punch or similar batched drink to cap off our annual tavern month, I give you Dorothy Jones’s Coffeehouse Punch. It’s main inspiration is American Orange Punch, which notably includes porter ale in addition to some much more usual suspects (rum, brandy, maraschino, crème de noyaux). But I wanted it to be rye-based (which goes perfectly with the porter), so I did a bunch of research on whiskey-based punches, too. I love the way it turned out, especially with the innovation of using “rye cofee” in place of tea for dilution.
Rye Coffee
Rye was one of a slew of grains, roots, and vegetables that were roasted and used as coffee substitutes. These were especially popular in times of economic strife, war, and trade disruption. Roasted rye coffee is especially associated with the Civil War. This recipe is a wholly anachronistic cocktail inspired by rye coffee--it's basically an Irish Coffee, and it's maybe my favorite hot drink that I've ever come up with.
Southbury Tom & Jerry
Christmas in Connecticut, a 1945 comedy set in New England features a character called Jefferson Jones who is a returning war hero who had been stuck on a life raft for 18 days and fantasized about real food, including chocolate cake and ice cream. I adore Tom & Jerry and I’m super into this version which features rye whiskey and chocolate stout–it’s the most custardy hot chocolate you’ve ever had. Best enjoyed in a horse-drawn sleigh.
Buckland Bang
Bang is essentially a warm 50/50 mix of ale and cider, fortified with gin or whiskey, sweetened (traditionally with treacle), and flavored with ginger and spice. It is differentiated from other beer cocktails we’ve studied because it doesn’t contain citrus and it isn’t a flip because it doesn’t call for eggs. Bang is kind of it’s own thing, and it’s just what I want to drink on a cold fall evening.
Ward Eight
One of the only cocktails to be most closely associated with Boston, the Ward Eight is a Whiskey Daisy with orange juice. For our version, I decided to include sherry as part of the base (it appeared in a 1930s Mr. Boston recipe for the drink), use acid-adjusted orange juice, and offer both a long, Daisy version, and a Sour style presentation, as well.
Midcentury Tom Collins
The Tom Collins had yet another life after World War II. That’s like four lives now! The postwar suburbanization of the United States, combined with the lasting effects of Prohibition, severely narrowed the once-massive canon of American drinks–but the Collins remained. In this period, it solidified into the classic form we know today; meanwhile, the John Collins ditched genever in favor of American whiskey. I added the Angostura bitters based on a 1949 recipe from the Esquire Handbook for Hosts.
Single-serving eggnog
As with punch and flip, eggnog began as a large-format drink that eventually also became available in single-serving form. This shift reflects the changing nature of drinking and bartending in the nineteenth century. Single-serving eggnog is very similar to a flip, with the addition of dairy. This recipe is written for our “classic” mix of spirits; see the fortified wine and Texian recipes for variations.
Large-format eggnog
Making a batch of eggnog is more like a baking project than it is like making a cocktail. And, as with punch, time is an important ingredient in its successful construction; with a little time, the concoction melds into a silky-smooth drink akin to boozy melted ice cream. This "classic recipe" is a kind of summary of many a 'nog past, combining the original duo of brandy and rum with the more rustic rye whiskey, which form a balanced triumvirate that counters the sweetness of the egg-and-dairy mixture beautifully.
Al’s Julep
As you know, my historically-driven palate favors the spirits that were popular in 19th-century juleps, i.e. rye, Cognac, and rum. For my own julep recipe, I wanted to combine these three in equal parts with a favorite amaro (Braulio or dell’erborista are particularly good here, but there are many that would work!). I also decided to make the garnish do a little aromatic work, hence the nutmeg and shaved coffee bean, which hit the nose along with the mint upon first sip. The sherry float also contributes a nice aroma if desired!
Prescription Julep
This recipe, based on one from the 1850s, gives a window into what pre-Civil War juleps looked like after ice had established itself as an essential part of the drink. The mixture of Cognac and rye and the slight presence of Jamaican rum illustrate the julep’s former life as a rum drink and the preference for a brandy base during this period while also foreshadowing the rise of rye juleps that would come after the Civil War (see Dabney Julep from our Pre-Civil War Black Tavern-keepers theme). NB: crushed ice is preferred over pebble here.
Boston Sour & Rattlesnake
Whiskey Sours with egg white came into favor in the 1920s, almost certainly a product of the vibrant cocktail scene that flourished overseas during Prohibition. It has been called the Boston Sour by some, including, unsurprisingly, the Old Mr. Boston Official Bartender’s Guide, first published in the 1930s. The Rattlesnake, a Savoy Cocktail Book drink, is a Boston Sour with absinthe.
New-York Sour
The Whiskey Sour with a red wine float (aka a “claret snap”) has gone by various names including the Continental Sour and Southern Sour and, though it likely originated in Chicago, people in 1880s Boston called it the “New-York Sour,” and the name has stuck. It can be served over a large ice cube or up in a chilled coupe; at Gigantic, we favor the former.
Whiskey Fix
Though the Sour template predates the Fix slightly, the latter–a Sour served over crushed ice–was an incredibly popular member of the family in the mid-nineteenth century. Our recipe is diluted with a measure of water, just like the earliest extant Fix and Sour recipes–a nod to their evolution as a single-serving punch.
Pollard Ice Punch
A menu for Othello Pollard’s Boston restaurant from 1803 listed Solid Arguments (foods), Agitations (acidic things), Grievances (spicy things), Superfluities (sweets) and Punishments (alcohol). Under punishments one finds “ice-punch,” a version of the already very entrenched crowd-pleasing drink served on the new craze: ice. Below is our imagined vision of what may have been in that punch.
Dabney Julep
John Dabney was so famous for his Mint Juleps that his obituary claimed that he “concocted more mint juleps than any man in the country.” His were rye-based, piled high with crushed ice and garnished with abandon. One description of a Dabney Julep listed mint, a strawberry, cherry, a slice of pineapple, and a pink rose as garnishes.
Halekulani Old-Fashioned
The Halekulani–a whiskey-based sour with lemon, orange, pineapple, demerara sugar, grenadine, and bitters–has always intrigued me. Another non-rum tropical drink from Hawaiian hotel history, this one originated at the House Without a Key Lounge at Waikiki’s Halekulani Hotel. I decided to turn this into a stirred, spirit-forward drink–the result is a tropical Improved Cocktail with a nod to all of the original elements, plus our banana mix and a touch of absinthe.
A Twenty-First-Century Cocktail
Spirit-forward drinks were stars of the Cocktail Renaissance–and they haven’t strayed much from the formula that was set over 200 years ago. This recipe reflects the resurgence of “old-world” spirits like Cognac and genever as well as the return of rye as a base for cocktails. The bitters in this Old-Fashioned come in the form of amaro, a darling of contemporary American cocktail culture. This drink harkens back to my Al-Pino Old-Fashioned recipe, which I developed in 2018 (original) and 2021 (2.0) respectively.
The Old-Fashioned
When, in the post-Civil War era, Fancy & Improved Cocktails came on the scene followed by the Vermouth Cocktail and Manhattan, people needed a way to order the more elemental Cocktail and the term “Old-Fashioned” was applied to the simple spirits-sugar-water-bitters formula. This version is an attempt to capture what happened to the Cocktail during the twentieth century–we stop short of muddling fruit but cherry syrup and stirring with an expressed orange peel give it a subtly similar effect. Rye and bourbon are both popular bases for this iteration of the drink.
Fancy & Improved Cocktail
By the 1860s, it was common practice to add liqueurs–Curaçao and maraschino in the early days–to the Cocktail’s original formula. The term “Fancy Cocktail” typically denotes this addition and the assurance of a lemon twist, too. “Improved Cocktails” typically layer yet more flavor, with absinthe, multiple liqueurs, or a combination of bitters. The recipe below is technically an Improved Cocktail, though omitting the absinthe will knock it down to the “Fancy” level.