Recipe: The original Suffering Bastard

Found a 1959 New York Times interview with the inventor himself, Joe Scialom, one-time head bartender at Sheperd's Hotel in Cairo. Here's what it said:

When liquor was short during the war, he had to concoct "something to quench the boys' thirst." He combined equal parts gin and brandy with a dash of Angostura bitters, a teaspoon of Rose's lime juice, and English ginger ale. He garnished the drink with a sprig of fresh mint, a slice of orange and a cucumber peel. The bartender advised Americans to substitute ginger beer for the ginger ale because the British version of the soft drink is more heavily seasoned with ginger than ours.

Happy drinking!

[ Edited by: mbanu 2006-08-20 08:31 ]

Mbanu,

I have found another article (1972) where Joe Scialom seems to contradict that which he is quoted as saying in your article.

"During the bleak war days, Shepheard's ran short of cognac, gin and most imported liquors. "We had to make do with stuff that wasn't so smooth," he said, "and the British officers began to complain that they were getting bad hangovers"."I decided to seek a cure, and I finally dreamed up a drink that I named The Suffering Bar Steward. It consisted of gin we borrowed from the South African post exchange, brandy from Cyprus and bitters made by a chemist across the street from the hotel. To this we added lime juice made in Cairo and a local ginger ale provided by a Greek merchant of dubious character.

"The result was a drink with an unexpectedly pleasant taste and a delayed action effect."

And in addition, the recipe for the Suffering Bastard is given as follows:

One ounce gin
Two ounces brandy or bourbon
One teaspoon lime juice
One dash bitters
Add cracked ice and fill glass with ginger ale, decorating with a slice of orange.

Interesting.

George

I must say that this is one of my favorite drinks. Oddly enough I can't seem to get any ofthe friends turned on to it. One fine quote from my lady friend was "eeewww... that's a guys drink if I ever had one."

Well... to each his own.

I've got some Reed's Jamacian Ginger Beer that is just dying to be used in a Bastard. Too bad I've gotta wait another day until I'm off work to do it. :(

-T.J.

I've come across two different recipes for the Suffering Bastard. One is the one above, which is fantastic, and one is as follows:

1 1/2 parts light rum
1 1/2 parts dark rum
1 tbsp curacao
juice of 1 lime
1/4-1/2 tsp sugar

Shaken and poured over ice.

Does anyone know the history of this recipe? And why are these two very different drinks both called the Suffering Bastard?

This one is the Trader Vic version of the suffering bastard. Look at the recipe. Add some orgeat and you pretty much have a mai tai. It was garnished with a cucumber. Like so many of these drinks, the names and recipes seem to be interchangeable.

Well I consulted the bible on this one (Trader Vics Bartenders Guide)

Trader Vic claims to have invented this one too, but the drink is not listed in the old testament (1947 edition) so I consulted the new testament (1974 edition). FYI: at one point Trader Vic also had the US Patent on the design of the Suffering Bastard Mug.

Suffering Bastard (Trader Vic 1974)
3 ounces Mai Tai Mix
1 ounce light Puerto Rican Rum
2 ounces St. James rhum
lengthwise strip of cucumber peel
1 lime (cut and juiced)

Cut lime and squeeze juice into a mai tai glass (double old fashion) filled with shaved ice; save one shell. Add mai tai mix and rums. Hand shake. Decorate with cucumber peel, lime shell, fresh mint and a fruit stick.

There are a few problems with this drink, first your Suffering Bastard mug holds twice as much booze as a Mai Tai Glass. In his book Trader Vic substitutes 2 parts orange curacao, 1 part sugar syrup, and 1 part orgeat syrup for mai tai mix in his Mai Tai so it should work in this drink too.

Suffering Bastard (Adapted for your mug by me)
3 ounces orange curacao
1.5 ounces rock candy syrup
1.5 ounces orgeat syrup
2 ounces light Puerto Rican Rum
4 ounces St. James rhum
lengthwise strip of cucumber peel
2 limes (cut and juiced)

Cut limes and squeeze juice into a shaker containing shaved iced dumped in from one Suffering bastard mug; save one lime shell. Add booze and mixers. Hand shake. Dump without straining into mug and decorate with cucumber peel, lime shell, fresh mint and a fruit stick.

Isn't this the recipe for the original Mai Tai from the Grog Log?
Now I'm confused. How is the Suffering Bastard made at Trader Vic's today?

This has been a question buring in the back of my mind as well!

I recently went to trader vics here in LA and had both a Mai Tai and a Suffering Bastard. They tasted related but not that similar. The Bastard was much dryer than the mai tai and didn't seem to have the orange taste of the Mai Tai from the curacao. They put an entire hafl of a small pickle cucumber (unpickled of course) which give the entire drink a very distinctive cucumer smell/taste. It sounds strange, but the cucumber is very refreshing in the drink.

Grog Log lists bourbon as an ingredient. anyone out there done side by side comparisons? Or know a Vic's bartender who will come clean?

[ Edited by: Digitiki 2007-03-01 14:31 ]

I have had many different versions of the Suffering Bastard, including the original from the Grog Log and the one served at Trader Vic's. The two are nothing alike. The original SB was made with Gin, Bourbon and Ginger Ale/Beer. The TV version is made exclusively with rum. One of these days I will post my own recipe, which (IMHO) is one of the best.

Ugh. Fine- here's the story. The Trader Vic's Suffering Bastard is bullshit. It's virtually a Mai Tai with a little more rum and a cucumber.

These are the in-house recipes:

Mai Tai

1/2 squeezed lime
1/4 oz lime juice (to top up the fresh lime- in Bay Area locations, it's 1/4 ounce lemon juice, since the lemon juice concentrate that Vic's uses tastes better than the frozen lime juice concentrate that they carry. Now you know the ugly truth)
3/4 oz Mai Tai Concentrate (remember this is the in-house concentrate which is CONSIDERABLY different from the retail product)
2 oz Vic's Royal Amber Rum (this is their in-house Mai Tai Rum. It has recently been made available to retail outlets. It is terrible. Do not for one second live under the illusion that it is a blend of Jamaican & Martinique rums. It is unaged Cruzan from the USVI with coloring and flavoring added.)

If you ask for a Mai Tai San Francisco style, you will get curacao & orgeat in place of the Concentrate, and Trader Vic's Gold & Dark rum, which are marginally better, but not much. Still not Jamaican or from Martinique.

Suffering Bastard

1/2 squeezed lime
3/4 oz Mai Tai Concentrate
1 oz Vic's light rum
1 oz Vic's gold rum
1/2 oz Vic's dark rum

with a cucumber.

Over the years, Vic's has simplified and consolidated many of it's recipes to save on time, money, and ingredients. Sad truth.

Stick with the Grog Log Bastard. It doesn't call for a cucumber, but it would be good with one.

What is the Mai Tai consentrate?

Since one of the ingredients is currently in season and available in stores, here is my personal recipe for a Suffering Bastard. I do not claim that this is the original recipe, but it is based on the original and is IMHO the ultimate Suffering Bastard.

Some of you may have had this at Tiki Oasis IV. Or was it V? Yeah, I think it was V. It was in Palm Springs whichever it was.

Pi Phi Rho’s Suffering Bastard

You need the following items:

· Blood Orange
· Lime
· Peychaud’s, Orange and Angostura bitters
· Cocktail Shaker
· Double Old Fashioned glass
· Fresh Mint, cocktail cherry
· Ginger Beer (Barret’s., Cock and Bull) or a good ginger ale (Vernor’s)

Start by slicing a wheel or thin wedge from the blood orange and a wheel from the center of the lime. Put the blood orange and lime wheels into the double old fashioned glass and bruise with a muddler. Into the cocktail shaker put:

· Approx. 8 oz. Crushed ice
· The juice of the lime
· 1 tsp. Orgeat Syrup
· 3 dash Peychaud’s bitter
· 2 dash orange bitters
· 1 dash Angostura bitters
· 1 ½ to 2 oz. Gin or White Rum
· 1 oz Bourbon

Shake and pour ice and all into the double old fashioned glass containing the bruised blood orange and lime.

Fill the glass to the top with the ginger beer.

Garnish with mint sprig and cocktail cherry and/or, if you like, cucumber. Lightly stir and serve with a straw.

On 2007-03-02 12:09, Digitiki wrote:
What is the Mai Tai consentrate?

It's an in-house syrup that Vic's makes for restaurant use only. It's designed to taste like almonds, oranges, and a little vanilla. They don't sell it- that's why a Vic's Mai Tai tastes unique when you get it there. Unique, yes. Authentic, no.

Just a step to the left...

I'm reading a 1951 history of NYC, "Incredible New York" by Lloyd Morris. On page 177 he cites a cocktail popular with 1880s-era Bohemian writers called the Razzle-Dazzle. It consisted of brandy, ginger ale and absinthe.

Here I go muddying the waters even further...:)

I'm amazed at how widely the recipe varies for this drink. Several years ago I had a delicious (although very strong) Suffering Bastard in a Chinese restaurant near Washington DC. I spent some time trying to find a recipe that approximated it and found the following one online:

1 oz. dark rum
1 oz. light rum
1/2 oz. brandy
1 tsp. triple sec
1 tsp. grenadine
1/2 tsp. lime juice
1 1/2 oz. orange juice

I like the taste and strength of this recipe, but it bears no resemblance whatsoever to the Grog Log/Shepheard's recipe:

1 oz. bourbon
1 oz. gin
1 oz. lime juice
4 oz. ginger ale
dash Angostura bitters

I've never been much of a fan of this recipe (it tastes rather thin and flat to me), but I respect it's authenticity. I think if you do enough digging you'll eventually stumble across a recipe that suits your taste. Besides, doesn't the mystery surrounding this drink add a little fun to the whole experience?

In the words of Sylvester,"Sufferng sucatash"

On 2007-02-28 03:52, captnkirk wrote:
Well I consulted the bible on this one (Trader Vics Bartenders Guide)

Trader Vic claims to have invented this one too, but the drink is not listed in the old testament (1947 edition) so I consulted the new testament (1974 edition). FYI: at one point Trader Vic also had the US Patent on the design of the Suffering Bastard Mug.

unfortunately, while I had saved this image of the bastard patent, I can't find it on my hard drive and the one linked to above is now gone.

Did anyone save this that they could repost?

thanks!!

..sb

Here's a pic of the drawings for the Suffering Bastard Mug patent, displayed on the wall at Vic's in Dallas:

Also, here's the skull mug drawing:

From the LIFE archives:

"Allied servicemen relaxing at the American bar in Shepheard's Hotel while on leave. (hatless bartender is Joe Ellinsky Shallum, older man on bottom rt is American Merchant seaman Lou Harkness.)"

Gosh, Joe Shallum does sound a lot like Joe Scialom... could this guy be the Suffering Bastard's inventor?

[ Edited by: mbanu 2008-12-19 02:35 ]

I made a Suffering Bastard tonight that I think is much better than the recipe from the Grog Log. I've always thought that 1 oz of lime juice was overpowering. I have had a hard time finding a ginger beer that I like. I had some Stewart's ginger beer that I thought was pretty good, but I can never find it around here anymore. I use a little bit of muddled fresh ginger to make up for the deficits of my mundane ginger ale. I used usually use Maker's Mark bourbon, but tonight I used Bulleit because that's what I had. Bulleit has more rye and I think it gave it a snappier flavor, although I quite like the smoothness of Maker's and will probably go back to that when I buy my next bottle. I usually use Tanqueray, but tonight it was Aviation because that's what I had. The blood orange bitters, falernum and fresh ginger are what really brought this drink to life for me.

Muddle in tall glass:
small piece of fresh ginger (about the size of a sugar cube) with
juice of 1/2 lime (about 1/2 oz)

Fill the glass with ice cubes and add:
1/2 oz falernum
1 oz gin
1 oz bourbon
1 tsp Stirrings blood orange bitters
3 oz regular ginger ale

I don't usually garnish this drink, but I like to just toss in the spent lime half that I juiced. I wash the limes well before juicing to remove the wax.

I had missed this thread on the Suffering Bastard before. I was recently telling Bora Boris about the Suffering Bastard at Grand Star. Grand Star, located around the corner from Hop Louie in China Town, is a chinese restaurant/ bar, with live jazz karoake (at least it was the last time i went, which was probably a good 7 years ago), which goes back almost as far as Hop Louie. I used to go there to see the house singer do standards, and to try the various tropicals they had. At that time most of the cocktails were harsh at best, but i would love to get the Suffering Bastard there because it was served with a gherkin floating in the drink.

a whole gherkin? was it a miniature one?

We tried this recipe for a suffering bastard, using vernor's ginger ale, and Videot's homemade falernum...ooooooh so good!
We changed the falernum recipe a bit..and used a lot less of it, because it's soostrong! anyone want the recipe?
Cheers!
Pala

Gerkin??
eeeeeeeyewwww!
do yourself a favour, and try it with a spear of a nice crispy cucumber...oh so refreshing, and you can convince yourself that you had a salad!
Aren't we healthy!

To make things even more confusing Beachbum Berry's Remixed has a different version of the original SB. This new-old version calls for Rose's Lime Juice. There are also two additional recipes from Joe called the Dying Bastard and the Dead Bastard. These both have Gin, Brandy and Bourbon and were served as hangover cures. Oh my.

Drinking a Bastard at Vic's is good but it is really a different animal entirely from most of these recipes. Really that drink should be called a Suffering Vic.

I am pretty sure that at Forbidden Island you are getting the Grog Log recipe or something very near that. I know there is Gin in their version and also Jim Beam. Gin and Bourbon in a Tiki drink Makes this interesting and unexpected and definitively makes this one of my favorites.