The 9-Bottle Bar Recipe: The Turf Cocktail

Creating drinks named the “Turf Cocktail” was evidently a popular pastime during the decades hugging the turn of the 20th century. There are no fewer than three distinct drink recipes bearing this name or a slight variation that come to us from old bar books.

In today’s cocktail, we focus on a version that starts off like a Dry Martini before galloping in its own direction.

As David Wondrich points out in his neat history on the drink(s) in Esquire, society gentlemen would frequent turf clubs to wager on horse races. So it should come as no surprise that more than one of these tony enclaves — no doubt equipped with a handsome bar and plenty of club chairs in which to consume the bar’s offerings — developed its own signature drink and named it accordingly.

Again, the version below adheres closest to the build of a classic Martini, with a few twists. It’s based on a recipe from Harry McElhone’s 1922 ABC of Mixing Cocktails mixes gin, dry vermouth, maraschino liqueur, orange bitters, and — if you’re up for it — a small measure of absinthe.