Brooklyn Cocktail
Stir, strain, straight up, cocktail glass, garnish
Use high quality rye.
The earliest recipe I can find is the 1914 book "Drinks", by Jacques Straub, which quotes the drink as 3/4 oz each good rye and dry vermouth, then 1 dash each Maraschino and Amer Picon. This isTed Haigh's version, which is is excellent.
Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails, pg. 82
- Substituted Bigallet China-China for the Amer Picon. All other ingredients remain the same. Very nice proportions.
- I added citrus bitters a little amount of Demara gum syrup. Very nice.
- Used Knob Creek Rye, NP vermouth, and 1 t CioCiaro, 1 t Tornai in place of Amer Picon. Very Strong with high proof rye. Would make again w 80 proof and Dolin.
- substitute CioCiaro for the Amer Picon
- Made with Ramazzotti and two dashes Ango orange.
- Strong but perfectly balanced
- Replaced Amer Picon with amaro averna and avion d'or
- Made with Ramazzotti and a dash of Regan's. The dry vermouth contributes an intriguing spirituous finish. A second try with Amer Boudreau was also tasty. Third with bianco too!
- CioCiaro instead of Amer Picon
- Made it with Amer Boudreau as written above.
- Blue Collar Cocktail — Rye, Sweet vermouth, Maraschino Liqueur, Orange bitters, Bitters, CioCiaro, Lemon peel
- Armistice — Rye, Dry vermouth, Herbal liqueur, Maraschino Liqueur, Bitters
- Liberal — Rye, Sweet vermouth, Amer Picon, Orange bitters
- Harry Palmer — Rye, Sweet vermouth, Suze
- Heathen VC — Rye, Armagnac, Sweet vermouth, Triple sec, Bitters, Absinthe
Curated (can you curate yourself?) to remove my demented substitution of Meletti for Amer Picon. They are nothing alike. If you want to substitute, use Amaro CioCiaro or Amaro Lucano for the Amer Picon. Absent that, use Amaro Ramazzotti and a dash or two of Angostura Orange bitters. I would like to say I loved this drink given its great history and NYC borough name. I can't. With less Maraschino and more Amer Picon, I might enjoy it. It would also benefit from a bitter bone-dry vermouth, like Sutton Cellars Brown label.
I merged in another Brooklyn recipe posted by Zachary, keeping this one from Ted Haigh's book. The two recipes were very similar. The newly-available Bittermen's Amere Nouvelle makes a good substitution for Amer Picon, although it is quite light in flavor.
Is this really supposed to be equal amounts of rye and dry vermouth? I like this drink with more of a 3:1 ratio
The Staub recipe is 1/2 jigger French vermouth and 1/2 jigger "good rye whisky" - it's a small, weird drink.
Hmm, interesting. I make this (apparently historically inaccurate, but to my mind preferable) version: http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2011/02/the-brooklyn-cocktail-rye-ma…. I guess it is 2:1, not 3:1.
We have this on our menu right now and we steer away from original ratios and go with 2 oz rye, 3/4 oz dry vermouth, tsp maraschino and a tsp amer picon. More of a current "Manhattan" ratio.
Used the Serious Eats 2:1 ratio with Alberta Premium rye and Cocchi Americano, and 1/4 oz. Luxardo. Couple of dashes of Angostura, few drops of Scrappy's orange & cardamom and a few drops of Regan's. Very tasty! Great balance and good strength. Love the rye spiciness!
That sounds good, but without dry vermouth and Amer Picon (or sub) would be a rather different drink. I recently had a Brooklyn at B Street in Newtow, MA and it reminded me what a nice drink this is. When a bar has "Housemade Amer Picon", it's hard to resist ordering something with it. (They use Boudreau's recipe.)
If you haven't had a Redhook, I recommend it (Rye, Punt e Mes, Maraschino). You could try Cocchi in here too.
I was an idiot, but no longer. This is a fantastic drink. I use Bigallet 'China-China' Amer for the Amer Picon. Also wonderful is the substitution of 1/4 oz Islay Scotch (e.g. Laphroaig 10) for a bit of the rye. This is a world-class cocktail.
Great cocktail, though I definitely prefer the original (Jack's Manual, 1908) version with Sweet Vermouth.