Sherry Wine Flip – Recipe from Jerry Thomas ‘The Bon Vivants Companion’

SHERRY WINE FLIP 

Use large bar glass 

THIS is made precisely as the Port Wine Flip, substituting sherry wine instead of port.

(PORT WINE FLIP) 

Use large bar glass 

One small teaspoonful of One fresh egg. powdered white sugar. Two or three small lumps of One large wineglass of port ice. wine. 

BREAK the egg into the glass, add the sugar, and lastly the wine and ice. Shake up thoroughly and strain into a medium sized goblet. 

Tonight, we were doing a private cocktail class on Jerry Thomas, this is one of my favourite classes as not only do I think he had a fairly fascinating life, but I loved old cowboy films, and to me Jerry Thomas is that classic innkeeper, big moustache, standing behind the bar in the saloon and serving whiskey by the bottle while polishing glasses. I also think that where he started off, San Francisco at the time of the gold rush must have been one of the most interesting periods of life in North America. A town that booms from 500 souls to 250000 in 3 years, where wagon and boat loads of people arrive daily to seek their fortune, with prices 25 times higher than New York at the time, and where a good bartender could earn more money than the vice president of the united states? It seems ideal. My favourite quote about this period goes as follows…..

“I have seen purer liquors, better cigars, finer tobacco, truer guns and pistols, larger dirks and bowie knives, and prettier courtesans here, than in any other place I have ever visited; and it is my unbiased opinion that California can and does furnish the best bad things that are obtainable in America”

I find that whenever I do this class I want the drinks from that era, which is why today is Sherry Wine Flip day. I suspect the port will be damn close to a coffee cocktail, so I’ll hold off on that for a while, and sherry I use a LOT less so thought this would be a better drink for today.

And it’s a bit of a revelation, sherry has a dryness that makes it ideal as a aperitif, I’m ok with this but feel like I don’t pick up a lot of the flavours because of it, turning it into a flip let’s all of these out and leave s deep richness to the flip. I love this drink, sherry and egg go incredibly well together.

Thank you Mr Thomas.