The beautiful thing about Embury is that he put himself and his opinions out there in such an oblivious way. Before him few folks had dared to voice their opinions about cocktails, or even had taken cocktails so seriously in print.

I do think though that he must be appreciated as a revisionist, and as we look back historically see him as such.

The proportions of his recipes are often so different from the original recipes that I have no doubt that earlier mixologists would have insisted that he give them new names.

Just for me, personally, I might think that a drink composed of 1 1/2 oz applejack, 1 1/2 oz maple syrup, the juice of 1 lemon, and the juice of 1 orange is disgusting, but, on the other hand to off-handedly revise it without giving credit to the creator, or its original proportions is also wrong. There is no way for me to know that I am right, or that my interpretation of the ingredients is correct.

So, what’s on the roster for MxMo2008?

And many of them should be changed: consider the Applejack Rabbit, which appeared in a much different form in Savoy than in Embury. As you wrote over at eGullet, the Savoy has equal parts maple syrup and applejack, an excessively sweet approach; as a result, you altered the recipe to fit your taste, which is the same as what Embury did. The result? A decent drink — and there’s no shame in that. (And as an aside, who’s to say the recipe that appeared in Savoy or Macelhone was the original recipe, anyway? First appearance in print, maybe, but that’s not the same thing.)

Ditto with the Bee’s Knees — as Embury says, it was being poured at equal parts gin, lemon and honey; as curious as I am to experience the authentic drinks of past eras, I hate choking down good booze in a bad drink just because it’s authentic. Tweak it to a more palatable approach, keeping the ingredients, and you have something pleasant to drink — which is the whole point of mixing one in the first place.

And I don’t think Embury discounts the equally execrable drinks that existed prior to Prohibition (though I don’t have my copy in front of me to back that up) — the section above was lifted from a passage about the era, so that’s why it’s so targeted.

But you’re right, there are plenty of sticky-sweet drinks in pre-Volstead books — though it should be noted that many are indicated or implied to be made for the ladies, and considering that one by-product of Prohibition was the greater presence of women in bars, I wonder if bars and cocktail manuals of the era and that followed had a greater number of such recipes owing to the demographic change, along with the still prevailing notion that females only drank sweeter drinks. I’ve got nothing to base that on, I’m just sayin’.

As much as I love Embury for some things, such as encouraging bartenders to roll their own cocktails instead of slavishly following recipes, he has an annoying tendency to re-write both history and drink recipes in his writings.

There were plenty of sweet drinks before the Volstead act took effect in the US and plenty afterwards. Americans have always loved sweet things. Just because these cocktails aren’t to Mr. Embury’s taste, doesn’t mean they should be dismissed or the recipes completely re-written.

Besides, I place the blame for the Modern Super-Extra Dry Martini squarely at the feet of Mr. Embury and his disciples like Amis and Calabrese. Which is the greater sin?

I do think Alcopop can be blamed on Prohibition, partially in the sense you mention, as it encouraged liquor producers to experiment with creative ways to make alcoholic beverages palatable without distillation or fermentation.

Also, it allowed fewer, larger, more profit oriented companies to control a greater portion of the booze produced in the US.

Repeal Day is hitting it big on the internet this year. Here’s a collection of links:
First up, I’ve been remiss in not yet linking to Dewar’s promotional site. It’s pretty awesome.
Jeffrey Morgenthaler is celebrating in NYC …

Great post, as usual!

http://www.mixographer.com/2007/12/mixology-monday-wrap-up-part-ii.html

I also wait until the last moment to post and was thus left out.