The Sidecar

Cognac, orange liqueur and lemon: three ingredients, two possible birthplaces and at least four published ratios.

Nobody can say for certain where the Sidecar was born. Paris claims it: the Ritz says it began there, and Harry's New York Bar is often named. London claims it too. In May 1922 Robert Vermeire's Cocktails: How to Mix Them printed the first recipe we have, credited Pat MacGarry of Buck's Club in London, and noted that the drink was already very popular in France. Harry MacElhone's own 1922 book credited MacGarry as well, although later editions give the credit to MacElhone himself. A third story, from the American writer David Embury, has an army captain in wartime Paris who was driven to his bistro each evening in a motorcycle sidecar. It is a good story and it may be true. It is also a long way from proof.

What we can say is that the drink was in print by 1922, and that the recipes since have disagreed about almost everything. The earliest printed formulas used equal parts cognac, orange liqueur and lemon juice, later called the French school. Around 1930 the Savoy Cocktail Book put forward two parts cognac to one each of the others, the English school. In 1948 Embury wanted eight parts, two and one. Simon Difford later proposed a compromise of three, two and two. That is four published formulas in a century, for a drink with three ingredients. This recipe takes a side, and says why.

METHODOLOGY

1. If you want a sugared rim, run a lemon wedge around half the edge of the chilled coupe and dip it into a saucer of fine sugar. Keep the other half bare.

2. Fill a shaker two-thirds full of ice. Add the cognac, the Cointreau and the lemon juice.

3. Shake hard for about twelve seconds, until the outside of the shaker is too cold to hold comfortably. The lemon and the liqueur both need real dilution to settle.

4. Strain into the coupe, keeping the shaker's ice back. If the drink looks cloudy with ice chips, strain it through a small fine sieve as well.

5. Twist a thin strip of lemon peel over the surface so the oils land on the drink, then lay it across the rim or drop it in.

6. Taste it, and make this drink your own: if it is too sweet, add 5ml more lemon next time. If it is too sharp, add 5ml more liqueur. Serve at once while it is properly cold.