Over the last several days, I’ve found myself on a deep dive with this rather problematic paperback that has been floating around for some time (c.2008):
The book is anonymous and published by someone calling themselves “Restaurant Museum”, via a DIY book-making service. The Amazon entry lists “Jose Abeal” as the author. Abeal (1886–1942) did have something to do with a portion of the content, but he doesn’t deserve any of the blame for this book.
The problem, here, is that this book compiles—shovels might be a better word—a bunch of recipes from old Sloppy Joe’s souvenir recipe booklets, then bulks it out with nearly sixty recipes from the Floridita (@Splificator caught that right away), plus a smattering of Charles Baker drinks and other sources I haven’t yet traced back. Anyway, the book implies that all this content is from Sloppy Joe’s. Not good. It’s also typeset to look like a reprint of… something.
Anyway, the impetus for this whole digression is a recipe within the book called the Mojito Caballito. The recipe itself is a mess. The proportions are suspect, and the instructions appear to be erroneously copied from another recipe, but it’s essentially a Mojito that incorporates vermouth:
1 Teaspoonful of powdered sugar
One half of a Lime
Jigger of White Rum
4 ounces Dry Vermouth
Chilled seltzer water.
4 Leaves of Mint.
@francois helped trace the origin of whatever this is to the Caballito Cocktail, which appears as early as the 1930 Manual Oficial of the Club de Cantineros.
How and where it may have eventually been converted to the Mojito format with dry vermouth (and possibly quite a lot of it) remains a mystery as of this writing. Does it have anything to do with Sloppy Joe’s? Unclear.
I first found out about the Caballito in Rome, at Jerry Thomas Project, the bar of the Vermouth del Professore guys. They basically made a short Mojito with their vermouth (the ‘white’ one) standing in for the soda water, the broken ice making up for the lack of dilution. It’s a creative take on the original instructions. The one you’ve posted reads like a Chaparra with mint, but the recipe in the 1948 “El arte del Cantinero” book are a tiny bit more detailed and firmly place it in Mojito territory (served in a long-ish glass, with muddled mint and lemon) although sans water.
I’d say the anonymous author of your weird collection may have thought that the absence of soda water was a mistake in the original but that sounds just a little too attentive given the rest of the work. Or, indeed, the unexplainable appearance of dry vermouth in lieu of Italian vermouth.
Here’s the version from the 1948 El Arte del Cantinero.
In the mixing glass, add and crush:
1 piece of lemon
1 teaspoon of sugar
Mind leaves
1/2 small glass of rum
1/2 small glass of Italian vermouth
Ice
Shake, strain and serve.
To me, that bátase, cuélese y sírvase still reads like a cocktail-served-up, but if you stopped after “Hielo”, that’d be pretty close to a Mojito Caballito.
Perhaps there’s still a missing link out there between 1948 and Jerry Thomas Speakeasy? I may have to mix up some Caballitos today!
Since I’ve been talking shit about this “Restaurant Museum” book, here’s a list of recipes that appear in the book that are not from Sloppy Joe’s booklets and where they came from:
three Mojito recipes (two with Soberano Cognac) [floridita]
Mojito Caballito [???]
Hemingway Special [floridita]
Chaparra [floridita]
Colonel Batista Especial [floridita]
National Cocktail (rum, apricot brandy, pineapple juice) [floridita]
Mofuco Cocktail [floridita]
Rum Cocktail [floridita]
Presidente Menocal Special [floridita]
Jai Alai Special [floridita]
Jabon Candado (Ramoncito Lopez Especial) [floridita]
Havana Beach Special [floridita]
Havana Club [???]
Golden Glove [floridita]
Bacardi Flip [floridita]
Havana Special [floridita]
Tropicana [Fabio Delgado drink source not yet identified]
Isla de Pinos (Isle of Pines) [1948 El Arte del Cantinero, Ciro’s 1930, 1948 Ron Daiquiri pamphlet]
Cuban Manhattan [???]
Cuba Bella [Fabio Delgado drink source not yet identified]
four Daiquiri recipes [floridita]
Bronx [floridita]
Bronx No. 2 [floridita]
Flamingo [1959 Manual del Cocteleria, at least]
Flamenco Cocktail [???]
S. O. S. Cocktail [floridita]
Snow Ball [floridita]
Palm Olive [floridita]
San Martin [floridita]
Ruby Slipper [floridita]
Sevillana [floridita]
Pepin Rivero [floridita]
Rose [floridita]
Miss Joan Ketchum Special Cocktail [floridita]
Mendieta Special Cocktail [floridita]
Marco-Antonio [floridita]
Golden Dawn [floridita]
Gin Daisy [floridita]
Old Smuggler’s Awaken [floridita]
Delio Nunez [floridita]
Caffery Special Cocktail [floridita]
Seventh Heaven [floridita]
Mary Morandeyra [floridita]
Eureka [floridita]
Diamond Hitch [floridita]
Miami Beach Special [floridita]
Aziz Special [charles baker]
Bird of Paradise [charles baker]
Blind Gen [floridita]
“Rex” Special [floridita]
Paris Midi [floridita]
Casiano Cocktail [floridita]
Adonis Cocktail [could be from anywhere]
Bamboo Cocktail [could be from anywhere]
Errol Flynn’s Pick Me Up [ostensibly Fabio Delgado source not yet identified]
Soberano Brandy Highball [floridita]
Mc Avoy [floridita]
Morning Star [floridita]
Mendez Vigo Special [floridita]
Josephine Baker [floridita]
Chanteclair [floridita]
Hot-Kiss [floridita]
Caledonia [floridita]
Cleopatra [floridita]
Blue Paradise [floridita]
Brandy Daisy [floridita]
Brandy Cocktail [floridita]
Brandy Flip [floridita]
Between-Sheets [floridita]
ABC Cocktail [floridita]
Mint Julep (Mexican Style) [floridita]
Versailles Club [floridita]
Cafe Cocktail [floridita]
Morning Doctor [charles baker]
Kilroy’s Bracer [charles baker]
Whiskey Sour
Smoked Cocktail [floridita]
Summer Welles Special Cocktail [floridita]
Butterfly (Absinthe Frappe) [floridita]
My-Sin Cocktail [floridita]
Tequila Cocktail [floridita]
Black Velvet [floridita]
At least one of the Delgado cocktails is found in Potions of the Caribbean. I don’t have a copy handy (I’m far from home) but I’ll bet others are there, too.
