scofflaw

In January 1924, Boston prohibitionist Delcevare King offered a $200 prize for a word describing someone who flouted alcohol laws. “Scofflaw,” a compact blend of "scoff" and "law", won; two entrants had submitted it independently and shared the prize. The word was meant as a rebuke, to "to stab awake the conscience" per Delcevare, but instead it quickly became a badge of irreverence.

The cocktail’s first printed trail points to Maxim’s in Paris. A Chicago Tribune report published January 21, 1924, described a drink already being served there to American “prohibition dodgers”: three parts rye, two parts French vermouth, and a dash each of lemon juice and grenadine. That is the earliest contemporary account we have, and it places the drink at Maxim’s by January 20.

There is, however, a rival origin story. Harry MacElhone’s 1924 "ABC of Mixing Cocktails" credits Jock, a bartender at Harry’s New York Bar also in Paris, with inventing the “Scoff-law” cocktail. MacElhone gives a recipe with Canadian Club, French vermouth, lemon, grenadine, and orange bitters, and quotes a purported "Tribune" item dated January 27. Reknown bartender and cocktail writer Simon Difford notes in his "Difford's Guide" that he could not locate that later newspaper item; the January 21 Maxim’s report predates it. The fairest conclusion is that Harry’s helped establish the drink’s early reputation, while the earliest surviving newspaper evidence favors Maxim’s as its first documented home.

The recipe provided here is the most common modern adaptiation of it. The other recipes provided on this site include the classic ones by Maxim as reported in the Tribune, and MacElhone's own printing.