The Monkey Gland & Turf Cocktail

Monkey-Gland-Turf-Cocktail

We took a look last week at Harry MacElhone’s drink, the White Lady. The specs on that drink suggest that, when workshopping that recipe into its final form, he perhaps took his cues from another drink he laid claim to, the Sidecar. Instead of gin, you switch in brandy; instead of egg white there’s a sugar rim. But the skeleton is much the same — it is, like the White Lady, a sour at heart. You see, laying claim to a drink’s invention can be troublesome — most riffs on classic recipes have likely been attempted already.

Like with the Monkey Gland. Though the recipe was published in MacElhone’s 1922 book, Harry’s ABC of Mixing Cocktails, a later article in the Washington Post credits “Frank, the noted concocter behind the bar of the Ritz” with creating the drink (we assume that it was Frank Meier, who served there between 1921 and 1947). Search out Darcy’s O’Neill’s Art of Drink blog for more info.

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Monkey Gland

60ml Four Pillars Gin
60ml orange juice
3 dashes of grenadine
3 dashes of absinthe

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Shake and strain into a chilled coupette.

 

The history of the Turf Cocktail is just as murky, with different versions popping up in different books from way back — MacElhone has a version (similar to Harry Johnson’s in the 1934 reprint of his Bartender’s Manual), but the first mention of it goes back to George Kappeler’s Modern American Drinks in 1895.

We’ve included recipes here that are pretty close to the originals in MacElhone’s book. Feel free to tinker with them, tweak them, then call them your own. You’d be in very esteemed company.

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Turf Cocktail

30ml Four Pillars Rare Dry Gin
30ml dry vermouth
2 dashes maraschino liqueur
2 dashes bitters
2 dasher absinthe

Stir and strain into a chilled coupette. Garnish with a lemon twist.

 

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