How does your classic cocktail measure up?

When amateur mixologists in Salt Lake City (or across the nation) begin to get interested in classic cocktails, they usually start by looking for recipes on the internet, but sooner or later cocktail books find their way into the mix.  Regular readers will be familiar with recipes from the Savoy Cocktail Book (1930), and last weeks post on the Little Devil introduced “Barflies and Cocktails by Harry and Wynn” (1927).  (For more information on this little book, and a good recipe, see the Little Devil Cocktail.)  Of course, you can always get classic cocktail recipes from modern classics like Dale DeGroff’s The Craft of the Cocktail.

If you enjoy classic cocktails and begin buying old cocktail books (or replicas), you will probably run into difficulties with measures.  When a recipe calls for 1/3 of Gin or 2/3 of Bourbon, you might ask “what is 1/3? 1/3 of what?”  Fortunately, this mixologist has done some of the research for you and can report the results.  If you have a jigger that has two small, opposing, unequal measuring cups on the end of a metal rod, the smaller one (the 1/3) is usually half the size of the larger one (the 2/3).  On mine, the two cups hold ¾ and 1½ ounces respectively (1½ oz is a shot or a jigger), which become the 1/3 and 2/3.  Some of these recipes, though, call for 1/6, which then becomes only 3/8 of an ounce and is a little difficult to measure.  In cases like this, you can always adjust the quantities a little while maintaining the proportions.  That means that rather than having 2/3, 1/3, 1/6 be 1 ½ oz, ¾ oz, and 3/8 oz, you can use 2 oz, 1 oz, and ½ oz.  Just be careful that your cocktail doesn’t become too large.  Another vague measure is a “glass.”  Is that a shot glass, a wine glass, or a 12 oz tumbler?  Actually, in the old recipes a “glass” without qualification usually refers to a 3 oz glass, which might seem small, but has the benefit of delivering reasonably sized cocktails.  So here’s the Utah Mixologist’s version of the straight dope:

              1/6       3/8 oz              (or round up to ½ oz)

1/3       3/4 oz              (or round up to 1 oz)

2/3       1 1/2 oz           (or round up to 2 oz)

Glass   3 oz

For more on measurement, check out the following post on dashes.

Dash it all! How to mix consistently great cocktails

When it comes to classic cocktails, dashes are another area that causes confusion in Salt Lake City and around the world.  The next post gave you the straight dope on how to convert the measures used in classic cocktail books like the Savoy Cocktail Book (1930) and “Barflies and Cocktails by Harry and Wynn” (1927).  This time we’ll cover dashes.  A dash implies a quick flip of the wrist to inject just a bit of an ingredient into the mix, but bitters bottles have plastic stoppers that limit their output to a few drops, while a liqueur bottle could easily put out a lot more.  If you research your collection of cocktail books and search the web, you will find a dash defined to be (in teaspoons) 1/12, 1/8, 1/6, and 1/4.  So what is a cocktailian to do?  Especially if you would like to produce consistently delicious cocktails?  Well, part of the answer lies in the example above: use two different measures for a dash.  Use a smaller one, say 1/8 teaspoon, for bitters and a larger one for liqueurs etc. (try 1/4 teaspoon).  So here’s what the Utah Mixologist has been using:

            Dash of bitters             1/8 tsp

            Dash of others             1/4 tsp

Please be aware that there may be recipes where you might want a larger dash.  For example, when a recipe that includes over five or six ounces of ingredients calls for a splash of something, it probably means more than 1/4 tsp.  As always, you might want to modify these measures as your cocktail mixing skills develop to get just the taste you want.  Remember: if you modify a recipe and get it just the way you like it, write it down.  My bar includes a sheaf of printed recipes with my modifications written on them so I can reproduce them later.  And finally, be sure to have fun while working on your cocktail recipes, but always drink responsibly.