The Scofflaw

scofflaw
1. One who habitually violates minor laws or fails to answer trivial court summonses (such as parking tickets.)
2. An iconoclast

noparking-500

Per wikitionary the word scofflaw was coined as a  response to a content during prohibition times.  The contest was in search of, Jeopardy style, a word meaning “a lawless drinker of illegally made or illegally obtained liquor”.  The contest offered $200 as the prize and received nearly 25,000 entries.  Not particularly surprising considering that would buy you about 100 pints of alcohol if you could find a bootlegger to sell you some.

The cocktail is clearly named after this newly coined word and, per Gary Regan, the cocktail was created in 1924 by Jock, a bartender at Harry’s New York Bar in Paris.

Scofflaw (Joy of Mixology)
2 oz Bourbon or Straight Rye
1 oz Dry Vermouth
1/2 oz Lemon Juice
1/4 oz Grenadine
Orange Bitters to Taste
1) Combine ingredients in a shaker over ice.
2) Shake until chilled and strain in to a cocktail glass.

I’m excited about this cocktail for a number of reasons.  First, it gives me the opportunity to make some more homemade grenadine.  Sure, I still have some left in my fridge and freezer, but since pomegranates are in season right now I can do it right this go round.  Second, I’m going to pick up a bottle of Noilly Prat dry vermouth.  This may not seem particularly exiciting, but Noilly Prat has recently re-released their original dry vermouth formula for the US market and I’ve been looking forward to giving it a try.  Finally, it’s a bourbon cocktail and it seems like it has been much too long since I featured one.


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