A Recipe for Bathtub Gin

The wonderful queen of all cocktails Natalie Bovis-Nelson, a.k.a. the Liquid Muse, notes that tomorrow is Repeal Day, marking the end of Prohibition.  To celebrate, I thought I would post my grandfather Albert Russel's recipe for bathtub gin.  My grandfather was a Yalie, a partner in the prestigious Cincinnati law firm of Taft, Stattinius & Hollister, and generally a Dudley Do-Right kind of guy.  But he apparently made his own hooch during the long dry spell between 1920 and 1933.

To preserve this important artifact for posterity, my teetotaling grandmother carefully copied the recipe on University Club stationery (thus adding a nice air of legitimacy to this otherwise shady operation).  The recipe is a bit confusing, but here it is.  Note that I am posting this as a historical curiosity only, and cannot represent that attempting this recipe at home would be legal, safe or even palatable!


Prepare:

78 drops Oil of Juniper
12 drops Oil of Coriander
30 drops Oil of Orange
5 drops Oil of Cinnamon

Prepare separately:

25 drops Oil of Angelica
Use 2 ounces of glycerin per gallon of alcohol
Add 2 drops of mixture #1 and 2 drops of mixture #2 per gallon of alcohol
Use 4 parts alcohol to 5 parts water

I love that my grandmother added at the bottom, “It looks awful! Milky white!”

Cheers!