welcome friends welcome back to the
kitchen welcome back to cocktails after
dark and this is a series where i have
been exploring cocktails
and trying out things seeing what i like
in a cocktail
and the lighting is subdued because it
is after dark so for all of you that are
commenting that these videos are darker
than my normal videos
they're meant to be um and this this
particular episode
marks a turning point in what i'm doing
with this series
up to this point i've sort of been
grabbing recipes from different places
contemporary recipes
i've been looking at older recipes but
i've never brought out
my collection of prohibition and
pre-prohibition cocktail books
and i think from this point forward i'm
going to concentrate
mostly on recipes from these books and
give you a glimpse into what was
happening
during prohibition or even earlier so
this is a this is a cocktail book we're
going to use today and it's from 1930.
i've got a bunch of 1930s cocktail books
here
and i've got cocktail books some fairly
famous ones
that go back into the mid-1800s
and we'll get to those one thing that is
in common with all of these cocktail
books
from the 1930s and earlier is that the
writers of these books
all promote an idea of humility on the
part of the person mixing the drink
they all try to get across to you as the
mixer
it's not about you and what you like
it's about what your
guest wants and there's no right way to
make
these cocktails there's a right way for
each individual but there's no right way
for the greater public
and so you have to listen to the person
that you're making the cocktail for
decide what they want and if they want
it sweeter make it sweeter and if they
don't want the brand of rum that you
think is the best brand of rum
then don't use that brand use the brand
that the guest wants
it's all about the guest it's all about
the individual drinking the cocktail you
need to make the best
possible cocktail for that guest
based on their preferences and i
find that you know here in 2020 soon to
be 2021
that is something that's sorely lacking
in commentary about cocktails online
there is a certain group of
ultra-pedantic people in the comment
sections who believe there's only one
way to make a cocktail and that's the
way they make it
and because they like it it must be
perfect and everybody else must conform
to their
style of cocktail making and i also find
that in contemporary
2000s and later cocktail books the
person writing the cocktail book
says this is the way you have to make it
this is the only way you can make it
and i think that's completely wrong um i
think that if you're going to be making
cocktails and drinking cocktails it
should be fun
don't let those people strip all the fun
out of having a cocktail
make it the way you want it some of
these cocktail books
leave spaces where you're supposed to
write in what you
think this cocktail tastes best as so
we're going to get to those
today we're going to do a cocktail
called the bennett
and this is a cocktail book published in
1930
this version of this cocktail book was
published here in toronto
it was concurrently published in the
united states
at the same time in philadelphia by the
time we get to the 1930s
they start moving away from using ponies
and jiggers and
doing the recipes in parts so this
recipe today
calls for old tomjin and i'm going to
use old tom gin but i'm going to make it
two ways i'm going to use
a contemporary dry gin and we'll compare
the two and see what happens
okay first up is the version from the
cocktail book and we start out with
two parts of old tom gin
and one part lime juice
and two dashes of angostura bitters
and then we ice our cocktail tin
and give it a shake
okay i've got a nick and nora iced down
and we'll double strain that
and we'll do exactly the same
with a dry gin same proportions
and this gets a double strain too this
is the dry gin version
hey joel hey glenn hey friends so we're
doing
a bennett cocktail two ways
ah um one the way it's written in the
book
one way that glenn thought would well
and one using so old tom jin
is something that's becoming more and
more available again it went away for a
while it was difficult to get
so this is the dry gin and this is the
old tom gin
and both of these are from this cocktail
book uh jimmy's
cocktail book late of cyros in london
and it has a series of toasts in the
back
um that you cannot in 2020 say in polite
company
okay so notice we'll just we'll just
smile not and toast we'll do without the
toast
i did find one okay may your car and my
car never meet oh cheers to that
okay okay let's try the other one
i think my preference of the two would
be this one that one
see i was going to say this one so this
is it this is great we don't have to
share then
this is the old tom jen and that is the
that is the dry gin
huh and so that dried gin i like that
one
that's from uh distillery here close to
here in niagara
called dillon's and they started with a
base spirit that's rye
so it's a little bit spicy it's got a
little bit of that spicy character
the old tom has just a touch of
sweetness and i kind of like that
overall in this drink but drop either of
them in front of me
and i think i would enjoy them um
that's interesting so when you see
old tom jin in one of these recipe books
and you don't have old tom
you probably get away with a london dry
gin and if you want to replicate that
sweetness
just put in a little bit of simple syrup
or gum syrup
and and you would you would bring that
sweetness back but don't put in too much
i don't think right off the top
because even though this is supposed to
be sweeter i don't think it's that sweet
it's a relative statement it is a
relative statement so thank you for
joining us for cocktails after dark
from this point forward we're going to
concentrate on prohibition
and pre-prohibition cocktails see you
again soon
one of my favorite passages from this
book is all such occult references have
been abandoned and you will find that
your favorite drinks makeup is listed in
terms of parts
so many parts gin so many parts
pineapple juice and so forth
so that even a child of five may prepare
his or her favorite beverage
without the necessity of running to ask
daddy please what is a [ __ ]
okay so you're just hey go makes me a
drink child
go mix me a drink
you