While reading Doug Winship's Pegu Blog tonight I realized that I couldn't even remember the last time I had a Pegu, and couldn't remember ever trying one using Dale's recipe. The cocktail was the house specialty of the Pegu Club, a British officer's club in Burma during the time of British imperialism.

The Pegu Cocktail

Dale's recipe is different from others that I have in that DDG specifies that you begin by muddling lime wedges, orange curacao, and bitters in the bottom of the mixing glass. To that you add gin and ice and shake. Most of the recipes I have call for fresh squeezed lime juice instead of muddled lime pieces. The difference of course is that by muddling you get not just the expressed lime juice but also the essential oil from the zest, and some of the bitterness of the pith. The cocktail tasted fine, I am just curious about Dale's reasoning--is it just a matter of personal preference, or is he referencing a historically accurate technique in some way?

The first recipe in print that I have is from Barflies and Cocktails (1927--recently and deliciously reprinted by Mud Puddle Books) and it consists of gin, orange curacao, Rose's lime juice (at least they had the pre-high fructose corn syrup version), and a dash each of Angostura and orange bitters. The recipes for this cocktail are amazingly similar, in that recipes printed 80 years apart from each other don't differ all that much. Simon Difford prints a recipe with a small amount of sweetness to offset the "tartness of this gin based Margarita-like concoction." At the Pegu Blog, Doug posts a recipe for the One True Pegu, which I made tonight so that I would have something to drink as I finished this post.

Is this what the One True Pegu looks like at Pegu Manor? (Sorry, Doug, no Saphire--had to use Plymouth)

The One True Pegu
3 oz. Bombay Saphire Gin
1 oz. Cointreau
1 oz. Real Lime Juice
2-4 Dashes Angostura Bitters
1 tsp. Fresh Egg White

Prepare as before, only shake the Hell out of it, then get serious and shake the Hell out of it some more! Strain and serve with aforementioned lime piece.

I am with Doug here, this is a tasty formula. But I have to ask, what is the precedent for the egg white?

I have not had the pleasure of tasting a Pegu at the New York's Pegu Club, but I am curious to know what their take on it is.