OP: Angostura Recipes

Angostura-Wuppermann Corporation, New York, 1934. Paperback. Good.

Angostura bitters, while initially developed in 1824 as a medicinal product, quickly became recognized for culinary and libationary applications. This 1934 promotional pamphlet calls on the expertise of high-end chefs across the US to offer inventive uses for the tonic.

Chef Charles Banino of the Ritz-Carlton Boston flavors a sweetbread and lobster en crepinette with the bitters. Gabriel Lugot of New York’s Waldorf-Astoria adds Angostura to the hotel’s namesake salad, the Waldorf. And the chef de cuisine of the SS Paris, Emmanuel Le Runigo, deglazes his saddle of lamb bitteroise roasting pan with white wine and Angostura.

Of course, it is the cocktails which are the more broadly recognizable vehicles for the tincture, and you’ll find plenty of those. Some come from places whose names still ring down through the decades, while the renown of others has become indistinct:

• The Fifty-Fifty from Angostura Bar, Trinidad
• The Zazarak from The Embassy Club
• The Princess, as mixed at Pierre’s
• The Delmonico Special, credited to Agosto Forte at Delmonico’s

A number of other cocktail recipes which don’t call for the bitters are also included. At only 33 pages, the staplebound pamphlet is generously packed with ideas.

Our copy of this scarce book is in Very Good condition. Lightly worn with rusting, but stable, staples. An attractive memento.