Thanks to everyone who participated in this week's Food History Happy Hour! In this episode we made the Gin Daisy from the Recipes of American and Other Iced Drinks, London (1909). 

We talked about Holland gin, orgeat syrup, picnics, including picnicking in rural cemeteries, potato salad, Miracle Whip a.k.a. boiled dressing, camping, including Maria Parloa's Camp Cookery, How to Live in Camp (1878) and Camp Cookery by Horace Kephart (1910) with an overview of the types of recipes and cooking they offer, and brief discussion of dehydrated backpacking foods. 

We did have a few issues with the new service, so apologies for pixelated, skipping, or out-of-synch video. Hopefully it won't happen again!

Gin Daisy from the Recipes of American and Other Iced Drinks, London (1909) original recipe:

Take half-pint tumbler half full chipped ice, add three or four dashes of orgeat or gum syrup, three dashes of maraschino, juice of half lemon, a wine-glassful of Hollands gin; shake well; strain into a large cocktail glass, and fill up with seltzer or apollinaris water.

​So here's my translated recipe that I used on the show:

In a cocktail shaker with ice, add:
1 tablespoon simple syrup with almond flavoring
1 tablespoon maraschino syrup
juice of 1/2 a lemon
1/2 wineglass gin (about 3 ounces)
splash bourbon

Shake and pour into a 12 ounce glass; fill with seltzer (I used lemon-lime). Add ice if desired.

If I were to make this again, I would definitely cut down on the gin, but the bourbon was a very nice addition for a little bit of smooth malty flavor to approximate Holland gin, a.k.a. jenever. And I might try this recipe for a more authentic orgeat syrup. Or maybe I'll try the old-school barley kind! Related to syrups - I finally ordered raspberry syrup! So expect some cocktails that call for that in the future. More pink drinks!

​If you liked this post and would like to support more Food History Happy Hour livestreams, please consider becoming a member or joining us on Patreon. Members and patrons get special perks like access to members-only content.

I've been looking for a port wine cocktail for a while so that I could crack open my new bottle of Brotherhood Winery's Ruby Port, which is delightful. And, as Anna Katherine pointed out, Friday was Drink Local Wine Night! And Brotherhood Winery - the oldest winery in the country - is located just a few miles from my house. 

As I mentioned in the video, the Bishop cocktail (notice that the Black Stripe is the very next recipe!) ended up tasting very similar to sangria, which is not a bad thing. But I would definitely cut down on the sugar next time. And having looked it up since the show, Jamaican rum is a dark rum - not at all close to the white Puerto Rican rum I was using. But in a global pandemic, you use what you've got!

This cocktail comes from the 1906 How to Mix Drinks: Compiled, Selected, and Concocted by George Spaulding. 

Here's the original version, with my notes:
Use large glass.
Sugar, one tablespoons [try one teaspoon instead]
Lemon, juice of one-half [or 1 tablespoon bottled]
Orange, juice of one-half [or 2 tablespoons bottled]
Port wine, one wine glass [ooops! I did a half, you can too]
Jamaica rum, one-half pony [1/2 oz.]

Fill with cracked ice, shake well and ornament with fruit [I used blood orange]; serve with straws.

​​If you liked this post and would like to support more Food History Happy Hour livestreams, please consider becoming a member or joining us on Patreon. Members and patrons get special perks like access to members-only content.