Time for a Drink: Turf Club Cocktail
Let's start the weekend right—with a cocktail recipe from Paul Clarke (The Cocktail Chronicles). Need more than one? Hit up the archives. Cheers!
When it comes to cocktail genealogy, the martini has a pedigree that's as murky as that of a stray dog. Nobody knows for sure when or where it was created (be suspicious of those who say they do) and the annals of late 19th and early 20th century mixology are full of assorted prototypes and variations that are part of the martini’s extensive family tree.
Here's one that's kind of fun: the Turf Club Cocktail. There are several versions of this drink floating around the old books, and it was certainly being mixed and poured before the dry martini settled into its identity.
This recipe is adapted from the one that appears in the Savoy Cocktail Book from 1930, and listed in an Imbibe feature about gin I wrote for the magazine's current issue. The drink was suggested to me by Eric Alperin from The Varnish in Los Angeles—it has a suave potency of flavor and rightly demonstrates gin’s appealing qualities. Not that a good gin needs any help in the lovability department.
Turf Club Cocktail
Ingredients
2 ounces gin
3/4 ounce dry vermouth
1/4 ounce maraschino
1 dash absinthe
1 dash orange bitters
Procedure
Combine ingredients in a mixing glass and fill with ice. Stir well for around 20 seconds and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Twist a small piece of lemon peel over the drink and drop the twist in as garnish.
About the author: Paul Clarke blogs about cocktails at The Cocktail Chronicles and writes regularly on spirits and cocktails for Imbibe magazine. He lives in Seattle, where he works as a writer and magazine editor.
View other entries from Cocktail Concoctions.
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1 Comment:
This is a recent favorite, though I would usually default the vermouth closer to a 1/2 oz. With all these different botanicals going, we could each follow the basic formula using different products and have radically different drinks. Plymouth works well, Tanqueray is actually really delicious...I've found all the classic brands work well, but have yet to try some of the newer styles of gin. I've served this up to several customers and it never fails to please. A complex and delicious potion.
Kilbeggan at 2:01PM on 09/12/09