For those watching the Stakes this afternoon, or those who want to be there in spirit, here’s another now-forgotten recipe from Trader Vic’s…

The Preakness Cocktail

1/2 jigger Italian vermouth
1 jigger Bourbon, rye or blended whiskey
1 dash bitters
1/2 t. Benedictine

Stir with ice, and strain into chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with lemon twist.

Derby Day is this Saturday, which means one thing… mint juleps. Unfortunately I’ll be away this weekend, so won’t be able to take advantage of the warm weather and my friend Rebecca’s pewter julep cups to celebrate in style.

Mint Julep

simple sugar syrup
4-5 sprigs mint
bourbon
shaved ice (think Sno-Cone fine)

Pour about 1/4 inch of syrup into bottom of a julep cup or small tumbler. Muddle all but one sprig of mint with muddler or wooden spoon, releasing fragrance of mint into sugar. Add ice, then fill with bourbon. Stir several times until frost forms on side of cup/glass.

For the uninitiated, though, the julep is a tricky and often unpalatable cocktail. Not many people will go for a drink that starts out octane-strong at the start and ends up watery at the finish. Muddling the mint can either release the herb’s fragrance or turn the drink to a grassy swamp. And shaved – or at least highly crushed – ice is necessary to get the proper frostiness on the glass. And you gotta like bourbon, cause that’s most of the drink.

Fortunately, my friend Dave, another ex-Southerner, wrote me with his solution: a hybrid julep-mojito.

I had a julep last year at the Kentucky derby and it made me sleepy and listless. So…I adapted a mojito recipe which I like. Just substituted bourbon. Specifically, bullet bourbon, a “top shelf” bourbon marketed by Jim Beam or somebody. Very smooth, doesn’t feel like acid reflux.

You prepare a mint simple syrup (1 C sugar, 1 C water, sprigs of mint, boiled and cooled). Bruise mint with ice in a glass, mix syrup with club soda with bourbon. Voila/yee-ha, it’s a julep.

Maybe the traditionalists will shudder at the straightforward highball treatment, but for those put off by the complications of a julep or those who are on the edge about bourbon, it seems a reasonable compromise.

I’ve not had Bullet bourbon yet. I can say Maker’s Mark is great in juleps; essentially anything that’s good quality and 80 proof strikes a nice balance. I save the 100 proof stuff for sipping.

Charles Swift at the City Record and Boston News-Letter gives us the history of the Ward Eight political machine in Boston. And, just as importantly for our purposes, he revives a vintage cocktail recipe for the Ward Eight, which reputedly was invented at Locke-Ober at turn-of-the-century. The drink’s a variation on a whiskey sour, with a bit of grenadine and orange added in. Using Woodford Reserve bourbon, which I normally find too smoky-tasting for my manhattans, I gave the Ward Eight a try, and it’s excellent. It’s balanced enough to appeal to drinkers who aren’t huge bourbon fans.

Charles gives the recipe, but I’ll repeat it here.

Ward Eight
1 1/2 jiggers rye or bourbon
juice of half a lemon
splash of orange juice
dash of grenadine
scant teaspoon sugar

Shake with ice and pour into a cocktail glass.