Russian Cocktail (Baker's)
3.6 4 ratings
Ingredients
How to make
Serve in a wine glass
- 1 STIR first 2 ingredients with ice and strain into glass filled with crushed ice
- 2 TOP with sparkling wine.
Flavour profile
19.6% alc./vol. · 1.6 standard drinks · 161 calories
History
Kummel's caraway freshness shines in this frappé-style champagne cocktail.
This recipe is adapted from Charles H. Baker, Jr.'s 1939 book, The Gentleman's Companion volume II – An Exotic Drinking Book. THE SO_CALLED RUSSIAN COCKTAIL, A MEMORY OF PEKING, IN 1926 In 1926, Peking was a city of considerable charm. Post-war trade had improved, and for young Russians, the memory of the Revolution and the massacre of White Russians was a distant, tragic affair. There was a young woman who managed a shop at the Grande Hotel de Pekin, selling items such as jades, Imperial tribute silks, carved ivories, and kingfisher feather screens. Eventually, the writer and this woman began exploring various parts of the vast city together. One evening, at a small, exquisite house on Pa-Pao Hutung where they had gone for sukiyaki – the only establishment in Peking that revealed its ingredients – she requested the necessary components. After a brief pause, these were brought to a small room with sliding screens that opened onto a garden adjacent to where magnolias shed their petals like rose-snow against the tall grey wall. There, wearing a kimono with a bamboo print, she prepared a trio of these cocktails. She made them to remember Russia as it was before she left it in 1917, fleeing bayonets as a pale-haired child of 11 or 12. Place 1 cup of finely cracked ice into a crystal goblet. Pour 1½ jiggers of quality cognac and an equal amount of the finest Gilka kümmel over the ice. Stir briefly, then fill the goblet with chilled, extra-dry champagne. A single flower petal or bloom may be used as a garnish. This is not a beverage to be approached casually, but rather with consideration and respect.