Make your own syrup by boiling together two pounds of loaf sugar to one pound of hot water.
Boil five minutes and add water to thin.
Ice must be washed clean before using.
Never touch it with the hand, but place in the glass, either with ice scoop or tongs.
In preparing hot drinks, the glass should always be rinsed rapidly with hot water; this will serve to warm the glass and also prevent it from breaking when boiling water is suddenly introduced.
In preparing cold drinks, care should be exercised in the use of ice.
Shaved ice is generally used when whiskey or brandy forms the principal ingredient, and no water is employed.
When eggs, milk, wine, vermouth, seltzer or other mineral waters are used, it is better to have the ice in small lumps.
The ice is generally removed from the glass before serving.
Sugar does not readily dissolve in whiskey.
When preparing a hot drink, put sufficient boiling water in the glass to dissolve the sugar before the liquor is added.
Fancy drinks are usually ornamented with fruits in season.
When the mixture is strained into the glass, fruit is added afterwards, otherwise the fruit is placed into the glass at once, and should always be handled with a small spoon or fork, never with the hands.
Red Top Rye should be kept directly on the ice, but brandy and other liquors require only a moderate amount of cold.
All liquors should be kept lying down in order to keep the corks moist and prevent the strength from being lost by evaporation.
In case of wines and champagne, if the bottle is set upright, the cork dries and the gas escapes.
Champagne requires careful handling.
If removed from the ice once and allowed to get warm, it loses its finer qualities.
A second icing injures both flavor and strength.
In serving wines, care should be taken in pouring into the glasses.
The bottle should be steadily handled, so that any sediment in the bottom will not be disturbed.
On the opposite page are given illustrations of the kinds of glasses used in the different formulas.
While shown in reduced form, a good idea
can be gained of their various sizes, particularly in relation to each other.
From the book “Red Top Rye Or How to make fine, fancy or mixed drinks” by Ferdinand Westheimer and Sons. US, 1902
