Review:

Clean, crisp, and fresh - gin-laced orange zesty citrus with herbal vermouth mellowed by smoothing egg white.

Variant:

Another version of the Chanticleer calls for 60ml Gin, 30ml Lemon juice, 15ml Raspberry syrup, and egg white, dry shaken and strained into an ice-fille old-fashioned glass.

History:

Recipe adapted from Albert Stevens Crockett's 1935 The Old Waldorf-Astoria Bar Book which originally calls for "orange gin" rather than an orange liqueur. Crockett says the drink "celebrated the local opening of Edmond Rostand's Chanticler".

Edmond Rostand was a French poet and dramatist, best known for his play Cyrano de Bergerac. First released in 1910, Chantecler (correct spelling) is a story where the characters are based on barnyard animals, and whose eponymous protagonist is a rooster who believes that his song makes the sun rise.

By all accounts, the cocktail is rather better than the play. Incidentally, the Chantecler is actually a breed of chicken developed in the early 20th century by Brother Wilfred Chantelain, a Trappist monk at the Abbey of Notre-Dame du Lac in Canada.

CHANTICLEER
One-half Orange Gin
One-half French Vermouth
White of oner Egg
Add a Cock's Comb if desired)
Celebrated the local opening of Edmond Rostand's Chanticler.

Albert Stevens Crockett, 1935

Nutrition:

One serving of Chanticleer contains 176 calories