The French 75 Cocktail - Two Versions...

[FedoraGent]

Folks,

I am preparing my cocktail menu for Friday's Vintage Music and Listening Evening and have been through a few vintage cocktail books. I have commonly drank/inhaled Brandy French 75s. However, they can be made with gin. I'm going to put a vote out...which French 75 do you prefer. This will help me decided which to make at our cocktail party.

FG.

 

[Fletch]

I dunno what Wikipedia is worth on this topic, but they're claiming Raoul Lufbery, the fighter pilot, invented it, and that it was originally champagne + cognac.

FWIW, I have a vague reference from 1933 for a champagne + gin cocktail called a Duke Ellington. Sure would like to track that receipt down, as I am a big fan of the Duke's.

 

[Mike1939]

According to the Esquire's Handbook For Hosts (1953) it can be made either way and gives a alternate name of King's Peg for the brandy version. In the book Vintage Cocktails it gives the gin version only with a alternate name of 75 Cocktail, saying it was named by French officers after one of the field guns used during World War I. Personally I prefer gin because it's my liquor of choice. Although cognac seems to make more sense for French officers, gin makes me think of British officers. Isn't there a reference to champagne and cognac in the Big Sleep?

 

[Mike1939]

answering my own question

Well I got up of my brains and went over to the bookcase for my copy of The Big Sleep. General Sternwood from The Big Sleeps says, " I used to like mine with champagne. The champagne as cold as Valley Forge and about a third of a glass of brandy beneath it."

 

[FedoraGent]

Brandy...

I like mine with Brandy, but I am going to be giving folks the option of Gin. However, since LA is full of teetotalers, I figure they won't care.

FG.

 

[CigarMan]

I can't honestly say that I've ever had one, but I'd have to say Brandy, only because Gin has a totally different taste from Brandy and would venture to say that it would be a totally different drink . . . but that's just my thoughts.

 

[BeefeaterGin]

This is a great thread! This is a great cocktail but there does seem to be some confusion as to the first recipe and origin of the cocktail.

This is actually my cocktail of the week and we have an awesome instructional video that shows you how we make it. My favoured recipe for the French 75 would be as follows:

2 PARTS Beefeater Gin

2 PART Freshly squeezed lemon juice

1 PART Sugar syrup

TO TOP Champagne

METHOD Shake the gin, lemon juice and sugar syrup with ice, then strain into a Champagne flute. Top with the Champagne, and garnish with a Maraschino cherry.

Background information is slightly debatable but apparently The French 75 first made its appearance in print in the 1930 edition of Harry Craddock's famous Savoy Cocktail Book. Legend has it the cocktail was first invented by WW1 Franco-American flying ace, Raoul Lufbery. Its name comes from the fact that it has such a kick, it felt like being shelled by the French 75mm field gun.

 

[clubwitsend]

I definitely prefer the gin version....another nice variant on this cocktail: substitute St Germain (the elderflower liqueur) for the simple syrup. DELICIOUS!!

 

[dhermann1]

I had never heard of the drink till I saw Diane have one last Friday at Chez Josephine. From what I know of the drinking habits of WW I fighting men, the Brandy and Champagne formula would be much the most likely original one. As far as the attribution to that most remarkable and mysterious French Ace, Raoul Lufbery, it was probably apocryphal, an attempt to give credit to an almost mythical figure in French WW I lore.
Fighter pilots in WW I consumed vast amounts of both Brandy and Champagne, so the combination seems only natural.
The name French 75, derives from the artillery piece that was almost symonymous with the French Army itself.
I think I have to try one now!

 

[clubwitsend]

This is what David Wondrich, the cocktail man at Esquire, has to say:

Ingredients
French 75
2 ounces London dry gin
1 teaspoon superfine sugar
1/2 ounce lemon juice
5 ounces Brut champagne


Glass Type: Collins glass

Instructions

Shake well with cracked ice in a chilled cocktail shaker, then strain into a Collins glass half-full of cracked ice and top off with champagne.



http://www.esquire.com/drinks/french-75-drink-recipe#ixzz0JB15zIO2&D



The 75-millimeter M1897, a light, potent little gun with a vicious rate of fire, was the mainstay of the French field artillery in World War I. Hence the drink. Of all the many champagne-and-liquor combinations known to contemporary mixology, this one has the most élan. Two of these and you'd fight to defend Madonna's honor. The drink was a favorite of the Lost Generation -- hell, there's enough alcohol in it to give even Hemingway a buzz.

Most modern recipes lowball the gin; one online compendium cuts it down to 1/4 ounce. For shame. Nor should one adulterate this old soldier with Cointreau or the like. No shame, however, in leaving out the gin entirely -- as long as you replace it with brandy or cognac (yielding a King's Peg, although often recipes for these omit the lemon and sugar).



http://www.esquire.com/drinks/french-75-drink-recipe#ixzz0JB0hjFLE&D

 

[Guttersnipe]

Here's what Mr. Boston's 1935 reissue edition has to say:

French "75"
2 oz. Lemon juice
2 tsps. Superfine sugar (or simple syrup)
2 oz. Gin
Champagne, chilled

Stir first 3 ingredients in collins glass. Add ice cubes, fill with champagne, and stir. Garnish with slice of lemon or orange and maraschino cherry. Serve with straws.

 

[dhermann1]

Again, I'll bet the gin was a post war alteration. Brandy was the aristocrat's drink, gin the common man's. But I can definitely see gin taking over once the Roaring 20's were in full swing.

 

[dhermann1]

Upon further research, it seems I have been clinging adamently to an idea that is just wrong. One source mentions that British officers had a daily gin issue. Lucky them. Seems they stretched their daily gin issue with champagne. Makes sense. Can you imagine flying a Spad against the Red Baron with a gin and champagne hangover? Whooo! Garcon! A little hair of the dog, si'l vous plait!

 

[Fletch]

Were they all issued gin? In Journey's End (set in a bunker in France) it was whisky, and the young captain was drinking a helluva lot of it.

 

[clubwitsend]

i love all of this discussion about my favorite drink! i have yet to get a champagne and gin hangover, surprising as it may be. heehee.

 

[Absinthe_1900]

Upon further research, it seems I have been clinging adamently to an idea that is just wrong. One source mentions that British officers had a daily gin issue. Lucky them. Seems they stretched their daily gin issue with champagne. Makes sense. Can you imagine flying a Spad against the Red Baron with a gin and champagne hangover? Whooo! Garcon! A little hair of the dog, si'l vous plait!

Several of them had a glass of Brandy after a flight.

Quite a few of the W.W.I pilots needed a drink to settle their G.I. tract, because the rotary engined fighters threw unburnt castor oil.
Sitting in an open cockpit breathing castor oil fumes, has a rather unpleasant effect on the body that most Aces never talked much about.

 

[Boodles]

From my 1930 Savoy Cocktail Book

French "75"
2/3 Gin
1/3 Lemon Juice
1 Spoonfull Powdered Sugar
Pour into tall glass containing cracked ice and fill with Champagne.

Hand written at the top of the page:
French 75

75 ml Champagne
25 ml brandy
1/2 tsp sugar
1-1/2 tsp lemon juice

1948 Trader Vic
French 75

1 oz dry gin
Juice 1/4 lemon
1/2 tsp powered sugar
Champagne to fill

Mr Fletch, sorry but I cannot find any listing for a Duke Ellington. Duke of Marlborough, I' ve got.