Pall Mall Cocktail

October 5, 2018 by Jennifer

Now that autumn is in full force, it’s time to start switching to cooler liquors like rye, bourbon, scotch and whiskey. I always love this time of year because it means apples, lemons, oranges and maybe even a little maple… All wonderful fall flavors of which I can’t get enough. Something else I can’t get enough of: classic cocktails made with the aforementioned liquors. So, when you combine those two, you know I’m all in.

This drink has everything I look for in an autumn cocktail. Citrus, apples and rye. Apart they’re nothing special, but mix them all up together and you have a great drink. While it’s true that you could mix up anything with these ingredients (and I have), this specific concoction comes from a little book I discovered last spring. It’s called Shake ’em Up, and it’s from Virginia Elliot and Phil D. Strong.

Shake ‘Em Up

Unlike most of the cocktails I make which come from tons of internet research and plenty of hours pouring over library books, this drink comes from a great little party guide. A party guide from the 30’s. A party guide for women, by a woman when party guides not only didn’t exist, but weren’t written by women. Elliot was trailblazer. There were plenty of cocktail books out there from the likes of Harry Craddock and Jerry Thomas, but Elliot was the first woman to write a book of this type.

What I really love about this book are the little tidbits throughout. Suggestions about how to stock your pantry. Cool illustrations before each chapter, and quotes like the fact that “coasters are a snare and a delusion… (that) are seldom needed and… complicate life unreasonably.” It’s such a fun little book, one that has all the classics from a gin fizz to a dry martini to this delightful Pall Mall.

While Elliot’s Pall Mall calls for several dashes of a variety of different liquors and juices, I took that recipe and tweaked it ever so slightly. It still uses all the same ingredients, but since our palates (and glasses) have changed, so has the need to change the measurements. We no longer need to drink just to prove we can. Now we can enjoy our cocktails, and I plan on doing just that.