The 1930s cocktail

After some discussion with steampunk friends about martini recipes, I thought I'd share the two martini recipes from my 1936 Quaglino's cookbook, The Perfect Hostess, with you. I found it in my local Oxfam Bookshop a couple of years ago, and it's definitely one of my most treasured vintage books. The restaurant was founded in the 1920s and was extremely fashionable in the 1930s, so if anything could tell you how a smart cocktail was mixed, it's this book.

Dry Martini Cocktail
2 dashes Orange Bitter
2/3 Gin
1/3 French Vermouth

Martini Club
1/4 Orange Bitter
1/4 Whisky
1/4 White Martini
1/4 Cointreau
2 dashes Maraschino

The book doesn't tell you how to mix them, but then it gives no quantities for the ingredients in the recipe section. As only one cocktail includes the instruction 'shake well' and a couple end with 'Squeeze lemon peel on top', I would guess that you put the ingredients into the glass in the order in which they are listed

If you're a real cocktail lover, Gemma at Retrochick has done a super post about her favourite cocktail, the Manhattan cocktail, today. Surprisingly, Quaglino doesn't list that one at all!