Some Like It Hot (Toddy)

Let me start by disabusing you of any thought that this blog post will have anything to do with a great Marilyn Monroe movie, or that sexy "ice cream blonde" of yesteryear - Thelma Todd aka "Hot Toddy." Rather, since the weather is turning chilly, we are going to talk about a couple of traditional hot drinks. Those pics are a great hook though, aren't they?

The first, and one of my favorites is Hot Gin, a drink with a considerable history dating to the 1700's (by 1825 "piss-quick" was established in English slang for gin and water). Medically, hot gin was was prescribed for dozens of ailments. Considered a stimulant during the day, a drink to "promote repose" in the evening, and a treatment for cholera.  Into the 1890's, a hot gin was considered appropriate for female "pelvic complaints" such as dysmenorrhea - used to such a degree that the medical journal Lancet expressed concern that hot gin was contributing to alcoholism amongst women.

Hot gin is also featured in English literature, making several appearances in works by authors as prominent as Charles Dickens.  In Oliver Twist, Fagin gives Oliver a hot gin after his  first meal with the artful Dodger, and the gang, to put him to sleep.  Later, Mr. Bumble, on seeing a newspaper item regarding Oliver, dashes off "...actually in his excitement" leaving his evening "glass of hot gin and water untasted."  Criminal waste!

Traditional recipes for Hot Gin vary only slightly and I enjoy them all.  If you have a favorite gin, use it.  If not, use whatever is handy.

The earliest recipe employs water, hot or cold - "Hot acts the quickest" per an early 1800’s writer, in a 2:1 ratio.  This was nicknamed “soap-suds” or, as previously mentioned, “piss-quick.” 

A more genteel and tasty drink is the Hot Gin Sling.  Put one spoon of sugar in a hot drink glass, or cup, fill half way (about 4 ounces) with hot water, add a jigger of gin, stir, add a piece of bruised lemon peel and dust with nutmeg.

Toss in a couple of cloves and a bit of allspice, and you now have a Hot Spiced Gin.

To make a Hot Gin Punch (my preferred variant) add the juice of 1/4 lemon, and a thin slice of lemon to the basic Hot Gin Sling recipe.

The gin drinks above are essentially a gin "toddy." Today a toddy, or "tottie", is nothing more than spirits mixed with hot water, sugar, and spices or flavoring to taste. Spirits, water (hot or cold), and sugar were the basic toddy of yore.

We primarily think of a toddy as using whiskey - bourbon, rye, scotch, or Canadian, will do.  Traditionally, after a hospitable dinner, a host would bring a kettle of hot water to the table, along with assorted spirits such as whiskey, brandy, rum, and port, allowing the guests to mix "toddies" to their taste.  Tumblers and wine glasses were the glassware of choice In the home.

Like hot gin, the hot toddy was considered to be of medicinal value.  It was recommended for the treatment of colds (including those of children), gout, and heat stroke.

A stanza from a "dramatic" poem penned by Irish dramatist John O'Keefe in 1790 seems more a limerick today - "cannon loud 'gainst cannon ranting; At his gun, poor Jack see panting; As to lip he lifts the Toddy; Off flies head and down drops body."

Widely appreciated, the toddy was enjoyed by notables as Sir Walter Scott, Robert Burns, Ulysses S. Grant, Jefferson Davis, and Mark Twain.  A drink that wears its years well, continues to be popular today, and is perfect for that quiet evening at home.

Black Box Warning - In the 1790's for those preaching temperance, just as marijuana was regarded the gateway drug by do-goods of my generation, the toddy was regarded a the gateway drink to alcoholism in theirs.  The evening toddy was said to lead to "drams in the morning, and afterward (drinkers) have paid their lives as the price of their folly."

Having been warned, tempt fate and try a toddy this evening by substituting your favorite spirit, including flavored ones, for the gin in the recipes above and changing the name accordingly.  The Hot Gin Punch becomes a Hot Rum Punch or Hot Whiskey Punch. Too strong? Titrate the water to your taste. Too sweet, or not sweet enough---adjust your sugar.  If you like cinnamon sticks or vanilla beans, use them.

The Hot Gin and the Toddy are "old as the hills" and some of the easiest to personalize.

Book of Toasts, Autrim, 1902

What’s In A Name – The Florodora

I have missed two blogs since my last due to familial obligations and found myself today casting about for a theme to get me back on track.  Since I have an interest in the origin of drinks, and their names, I thought I would borrow from a previous effort and use the title “What’s In A Name” with the related drink(s) appended.  If this works, I may do more in the future.

In the early 1900's, preceded by the operettas of the 1880's, the American public became enamored with musical comedy.  The play Floradora receives much of the credit for this craze.  A popular play in England in 1899, Florodora opened in the Casino Theater of New York in 1900.  

The play involves the imaginary island of Florodora on which a perfume of the same name is made.  Said island was stolen from its rightful owner whose daughter still works in a factory on the island.  The rest of the plot is convoluted to the extreme but the cast, chorus line, and music seem to have compensated successfully.  A feature of the theater was a manikin in the lobby spraying “La Flor de Florodora” on the theatergoers.

After a slow initial start, publicists started promoting the play in a manner seen repeated by the movie studios in their heyday.  TV news coverage of the Kardashians pales to that given the Florodora troupe.  Newspapers featured daily stories about the cast members, their personal lives, how well they regarded one another and worked together, their romances and marriage prospects, and of the huge sums of money that the chorus girls were making by speculating on Wall Street.  To the latter, one has to wonder if their fiduciary success was due more to the stage door sugar daddies than Wall Street, but maybe I have seen too many old movies.  Ultimately, Florodora exceeded 500 performances.

Florodora was the first  musical comedy to use the device of “stunning” fashionable evening gowns, worn by attractive women, to create a memorable high point in a performance, a trend continued in the Follies of the 1920’s and 30’s.  Women would go to see the latest fashions, men to see attractively dressed women. 

At the time, the music was considered “bewitching,” and people were often heard humming or whistling the tunes.  Leslie Stuart, the composer, said his formula for writing the music of Florodora was to:

“…take one memory of Christy Minstrels, let it simmer in the brain for twenty years.  Add slowly for the music an organist’s practice in arranging Gregorian chants for the Roman Catholic Church.  Mix well and serve with a half dozen pretty girls and an equal number of well-dressed men.”

The original “Florodora sextette” or the “big six,” none over 5’4”, was so popular with the American public that chorus girls for years afterwards, claimed to have been part of the original sextette. Francis Belmont, an original “sextetter,” in true movie showgirl fashion, managed to marry an English duke.

Florodora, its music, and its stars were immensely popular in the early 1900's.  Like movie related marketing today, the musical comedy became linked to a variety of products.  A soft drink in Cuba, race horses and pedigreed dogs, assorted food products, china, dolls, cigars (“three for 10 cents”) and a hybrid long staple cotton named Florodora were but a few.  Having a fondness for ice cream, one of my favorites is the “Florodora Sundae” – 1 banana, strawberry ice cream, strawberry fruit, nuts, and whipped cream.

In 1920, there was a revival of Florodora, with more chorus girls, and more lavish costumes and staging.  It was so popular that Fannie Brice was inspired to do a parody in the Follies.

Riding its second wave of popularity, it once again gave advertisers a useful marketing hook.  Florodora actresses modeled veils in Cosmopolitan magazine.  A massage vibrator was advertised to help women achieve “Florodora” beauty and sponsored a Florodora beauty contest.  Use of “Florodora” in marketing persisted into the 1930’s, as both a product name, and as a derogatory expression for something passé from a previous era.  There was also a movie entitled “The Florodora Girl.”

In my books, there are at least three "Florodora" related recipes.  The first two, the Florodora cocktail and the Florodora Fizz, from a 1913 text, are the earliest recipes I have found.  The Florodora Fizz definitely predates the book. 

A 1902 advertising magazine, The Advisor, states “The Florodora Fizz has replaced the Ping Pong Punch as the fashionable drink of the season.”  

The Florodora Cooler, easiest for the home bar, is from a publication of the 1930’s.  It is probably a Prohibition era drink being gin based, its other ingredients doing well to make the “bathtub” gins of the Roaring Twenties more palatable.

Yes Virginia, There Are Italian Bar Books

Two years ago, several members of my family had the opportunity to return to Italy, visit family, and do the obligatory tourist rounds.  I asked my brother George to see if he could find me a vintage, or any, Italian bar book. After much searching, and asking around, he reported that he had been told there were none and that, in Italy, drinks were not measured.  Neither sounded likely.  To make any drink, as in preparing food, a basic recipe is needed.  The ingredients need to be added in appropriate amounts and mixed in an appropriate manner. While a skilled bartender may not use an actual measuring device, he/she can make an accurate pour through practice.  Since mankind (and womankind) have a compulsion to chronicle any topic of interest, from ardvaarks to zydeco, where were those elusive Italian mixology texts?

Being told there were none, like being told something cannot be done (or shouldn’t be done), is a challenge too good to pass on.  I set out to find a trophy for my collection and, in twenty-four hours, there were two being shipped from Italy despite outrageous shipping charges.

Those of you who grew up post-internet do not fully realize how easy life has become. Back in the 60's, when I was studying geology,  doing research meant spending endless hours in a dull  library, without coffee or beer, poring over index card files.  Then, with a fistful of notes,  roaming the stacks looking for texts that were often not there, or did not have the hoped for information.  After exhausting the local university library, you would travel to another seeking the elusive grains of gold for your research paper. Today, you can sit with your electronic device of choice, in your skivvies with a cup of joe, browse the contents of libraries around the world, then request the titles at your local library. Damn young whipper-snappers just don't know when they have it good!

Trying the easy way first, searching eBay, over my morning coffee, was a bust.   There were several rather dull looking Italian pieces from the 1980's or newer, nothing I felt worth the effort to order or work with.  Not all was lost though.  I found a bargain priced, odd little 70’s drink book from Venezuela entitled Tragos Magicos.

Deciding the bigger gun of a serious resource was in order, I went to my favorite online used bookseller, AbeBooks, and the hunt was on.  Hunting a book online when you do not have a title, author or publisher, is a matter of utilizing key words.  What key words would you use in searching for a mixology text in a foreign language? Think about it.

 I once worked with a physician who was an excellent diagnostician.  Like

Dr. House of TV fame, he could diagnose unusual illnesses with minimal information, later to be proven correct in testing. A favorite saying of his was "Common things are common."  In other words, you need to rule out the ordinary before you move to the exotic. 

While there are many words related to imbibing, sometimes the obvious are the best. The word I use is "cocktail" in its various translations.  Though the term limits you to books from the late 1800's forward and will totally miss specialty books dedicated to punches or other esoterica (for example, the German text Bowlen und Punche), it is a great starting point.  The down-side to key word searches is that you may end up with hundreds of titles to peruse, many of which are totally unrelated to what you seek.  Italian drink books of quality do seem to be as scarce as hens teeth.  I successfully located two, i cocktails and Il Barman e i Suoi Cocktails. Both are well worth having and the former is todays topic.

When it comes to enjoyable books, some are a pleasure to read, others a pleasure to look at.  i cocktails is a blend of both.  Written by Luigi Veronelli, published in 1963, i cocktails is a hefty 365 pages including the index. The recipes include the old, as the Bee's Knees, and the obscure like the Zakusky and Monachino.  Perusing the index of recipes, one is led to believe that i cocktail is an amalgam of drinks from around the world. If you enjoy gin as I do, there are over 200 recipes calling for it.

For the visual individual, the book is a cornucopia of liqour labels. These labels are not the usual color photos as found in so many publications. In i cocktails there is page after page of heavy paper with individual labels neatly mounted, usually two to the page.  The lables represent products from around the world.  Very Old Fitzgerald - Barrelled in 1955 bottled in 1963, Cederlund Schwedenpunsch, Drioli Marachino and Tequila Sauza are but a few.  I am inclined to think the labels genuine since the Sauza label has printing on the back that would only be seen from the opposite side of the bottle.

The author uses  a pictorial key with each recipe that indicates the number of servings (usually two), the type of  glass in which to serve, how to mix (mixing glass or shaker), and if the drink is short, long, or hot.  

Units of  measure are always a challenge to translate.  Sure, a gocce (drop) in Italy, is susceptible to the same laws of physics as a  drop in the New Mexico desert, but when we get to bicchiere and bicchierino, glass and small glass, we have work to do.

In a recipe where all the units of measure for liquor are identical, all bicchiere or all bicchierino, the recipe is easily converted into a ratio.  When we combine dis-similar units, we need to know what each unit’s volume is. The chart below will help in translating volumes of measure in Italian cocktail books. Unfortunately, Italian measures seem to have as many differences in definition as Italy has had governments since World War II, so the selection shown is the product of multiple sources.

Having completed the laborious task of converting measures, we may now attempt the pleasurable task of  mixing a unique drink from an allegedly non-existent book.

Being an enthusiast of both gin and Campari, I was pleased to find yet another  cocktail using both. If you enjoy an occasional Americano or Negroni, you will probably enjoy the "Gin On Top" cocktail.  Served in a chilled cocktail glass it is an excellent aperitif.  Having the peculiar moniker of "Gin On Top" would lead you to believe it is a layered drink, but this is not so.  It is a conventionally prepared, stirred not shaken, cocktail.  In real life, I prefer shaken cocktails as I like mine colder  than the proverbial witches' breast in a brass brassiere.  The introduction of air causing a cloudy  drink, and hence "bruising" it, is of little importance to me. For me, there is no discernible difference in taste. Neanderthal that I am, I also do not raise my pinkie when I drink tea, or other beverages,  unlike a well-bred  Canadian I once worked with in Etobicoke (who disliked me for being "loud", and I him for being prissy) -- but that is another story.

Without further adieu, here is the Gin On Top:

This drink is distinctly on the bitter side. I find it best served with cheeses, crackers, or other hors d ovres  of your choosing. This recipe for two, would work well in three smaller, old school cocktail glasses.

Gin On Top (for two)

150 ml dry gin

25 ml Campari

25 ml lemon juice (1/2 lemon) filtered to remove pulp

2 wild strawberries

Ice cubes.

Place ice in mixing glass. Pour in the lemon juice, dry gin and Campari. Stir briskly with bar spoon, leave one or two seconds, then stir again slowly. Serve immediately in chilled cocktail glass garnished with a wild strawberry (in the New Mexico desert, you will get powerful thirsty looking for a wild strawberry)

The Good, the Bad, and the Simply Awful

I was lying in bed at 0300 wondering what my next blog would be.  I have several topics in mind, but none fully developed. When fighting insomnia, my mind often drifts back to past careers, usually nursing. This free thought in the wee hours led to today's blog on taste and potables.

When thinking of "nursing" and "drink," simultaneously, the obvious link is abuse of alcohol rather than the occasional cocktail or glass of wine.  Truly, I can tell horror stories about the excessive intake of intoxicants but preferring to preach moderation in all things, today's blog is less about drink, than taste.

As an RN on a  pediatrics floor, I adopted the practice of tasting the oral medications that I administered to my patients. This helped me anticipate problems and come up with creative ways to mask the taste of most, but not all, unpleasant drugs.  The worst, and least palatable, was prednisolone liquid. It taints everything that you put it in or on, leaving you with a greater volume of yuck for the patient to deal with. In one study, close to 20% of the kids taking it vomited; not from allergy, or adverse reaction, but rather from perceived nastiness of taste and mouth-feel. I can vouch for this from personal experience and, I would like to state for the record, that there is a world of difference between having a child upchuck on you, and having an adult who has been intemperate do so.

As a side note, there are many medical studies in the literature that do relative taste comparisons of drugs within a class, many of which are practically interchangeable, however physicians seldom seem to read those articles and have an instinctive knack for selecting medications most foul.

When it comes to drink, whether we are talking soft drinks, beer, wine, small batch gin, single malt scotch, or mixed drinks, taste is an interesting topic. We enjoy sharing descriptions, both verbal and photographic, of savory repasts, of tasty drinks and memorable spirits. There are many sites like TripAdvisor that let us share on a grand scale.

As with religion, many people espouse their personal taste as the only true taste and display a marked superiority and intolerance for others whose taste is different.

Hard-core scotch worshippers are a good example, with all their talk of single malts, whether taken neat or with a splash of water.  Personally, while I think Laphroaig Cairdeas is about as good a scotch as any I have tasted, I prefer scotch in mixed drinks – Oh heresy of heresies!  I would rather have a "Mamie Taylor" or a "Cameron's Kick Cocktail" than a pour of any fine scotch. As an added incentive, any scotch-based mixed drink does as well using a cheap scotch like Clan McGregor as it does with its pricey upscale cousins.

Recently, seeking new "old" drinks to try, I have made several that  range from "I don't care for this" to "This is pretty awful" and would like to share one from each end of the spectrum.

The first, an “I don’t care for this,” is from a classic text, The Flowing Bowl - What and When to Drink, by Willie Schmidt. Published in 1892, it is a great collection of recipes as served in the "Gay 90's" (a moniker originating when gay still meant light-hearted, not an orientation). While I found most recipes in the book decent or better, the "Gin Puff" is one to have had for the sake of having.  Having had two, it is hard to imagine desiring a third. The first was made using small batch Hendrick's, a dry gin, the second with Hayman's Old Tom.  The Old Tom preparation was slightly better but fell a long ways from good. 

 My best guess is that the Gin Puff was one of those "hair of the dog" concoctions designed to clear a “morning after” fog, rather than a drink to be had while the senses are still acute.

The all-time winner of the "drink so bad you wouldn't serve it to your mother-in-law" award has to be the "St. Barbara."  Saint Barbara is the patron saint of almost all occupations involving fire or explosives.  While it appears in one of my German cocktail books from the early 1900's, the choice of ingredients would suggest that this drink is English in origin, containing scotch, absinthe and Worcestershire in equal parts. One may surmise that the St. Barbara may have been the regimental toast of the Queens Own Cannon-Cockers or the "dare you to drink this" initiation beverage for the Grand Order of Powder Monkeys.

One rule of making mixed drinks is to only use quality ingredients. To every rule there is an exception and the St. Barbara is one. Using quality ingredients is pointless. Being out of Clan McGregor scotch, I substituted 12 year Glenlivet. That did not help. The concoction tastes like anise flavored Worcestershire.

Paired with a nice meat loaf, or lamb and leek pie at your favorite English pub, the St. Barbara might work in tiny sips with a mouthful of food. I have no desire to test it further.

Despite the number of questionable liquids that I have consumed (including gasoline while siphoning), or mixed, including those above, I have yet to find any as vile in taste as that prednisolone of bygone days.