Cock's Tales - LeNell It All

by LeNell Smothers, Posted Jan 15th 2010 @ 3:00PM

Photo: LeNell Smothers

"What's the history of the word 'cocktail'?" stirs up about as many variations as answers to the question "How do you like your martini? Since we are backyard farmers with a few feisty chickens, we love the cocktail legends containing references to poultry.

A British publication titled Bartender tells a great story in a 1936 printing. English sailors supposedly drank up some mixed concoctions in a Mexican tavern. They used a root resembling a rooster's tale called cola de gallo, Spanish for "cock's tail" to stir their drinks.

Another colorful story involves a New York tavern keeper Betsy Flanagan who was popular among the military during Revolutionary times. Her story is told in James Fenimore Cooper's "The Spy" (1821). She stole a neighbor's feathered friend to feed soldiers. After dinner, she garnished her drinks with the dinner bird's tale feathers. An unverified tale exists about poor folks ordering a pour from a ceramic container shaped like a rooster. This story is quite disgusting and we hope has no truth to it. What they got served was the remains of other customers' drinks dumped into the ceramic rooster whose tale contained a tap from which this nasty mix was served.

Although not a cock's tail story, the connection of the egg cup in the history of the Sazerac cocktail should be mentioned here. New Orleans Pharmacist Antoine Amedie Peychaud opened up a medicinal joint in 1838. He is said to have served a mixture of his now famous bitters with cognac in a coquetier, the French word for the pretty little cups from which you eat soft boiled eggs straight from their shell. This word was supposedly anglicized into the modern day "cocktail" and due to the use of a Sazerac brand of liquor, also called a Sazerac.

Our favorite cock's tale, though, goes to this etymological possibility. The Closet of the Eminently Learned Sir Kenelme Digby Kit Opened first published in 1669 contains a recipe for "cock-ale" involving aging a rooster in ale with fruit and spice. Cock ale sounds awfully close to cocktail to us; although the drink recipe sounds awfully awful. We'll let you know how it turns out. Yes, we're gonna do it.

Filed Under: Drinks, Food History
Tags: cocktails, JamesFenimoreCooper, New orleans