The Cocktails of the World

Description

This section is from the book "Burke's Complete Cocktails And Drinking Recipes", by Harman Burney Burke. Also available from Amazon: Burke's Complete Cocktail and Tastybite Recipes.

The Cocktails of the World

While the Cocktail is America's gift to the world of drinking, other na-tions have contributed many to the large flock of popular concoctions classified under the common title of "Cocktails." American hotels and barmen have received credit for many of these mixtures originating in foreign countries, and have renamed them. The international barmen have carried to America the best of the old-world art of mixing. The foreign mixtures are uniformly "smoother," more palatable and incidentally less harmful.

All the "dazers" or "shockers" are hereby dedicated to the American Prohibitionist, who by his resort to force appears to have defeated the very purpose which he so earnestly and so unwisely set out to accomplish.

Serving the Cocktail

The cocktail should be served as an appetizer--before the meal and always with the food-bit. Served just before the meal, the food-bit with the cocktail takes on the character of a special hors d'ceuvre, with toast or cracker combinations, and may be followed by the regular hors d'oeuvre.

The sweet cocktail should not be served just prior to the meal, but is in good taste between meals. The tart or "dry" cocktail properly precedes the meal.

Experiments with the shockers should be avoided when entertaining formally. The conventional, popular "smooth" mixtures should be adhered to except among intimates or at "wild" parties. Such parties, even, are dangerous and usually end in disappointment,