Once again, we have somehow all made it to another Friday and, once again, we feel that that means you are very much deserving of another little culinary treat to enjoy from the safety of your own home. As the weather continues to get warmer and the evenings begin to stretch in earnest, there is no better way to kick back at home than by making yourself a fancy cocktail, sitting down, relaxing, unwinding, and forgetting about all of the uncertainty and chaos of the world at the moment for just a little while. This time around we are looking to
France for some inspiration and the
Between the Sheets cocktail, which is believed to have been created as a variation on the Sidecar cocktail.
Like so many of France's favourite and best-known cocktails, the Between the Sheets is thought to have been invented in the famous
Harry's New York Bar in
Paris. Although, like so many cocktails, in general, the exact circumstances of its actual birth are shrouded in confusion and debate, with multiple stories and sources claiming different tales of origin and claims to its authorship.
Probably the most commonly accepted origin tale is that the cocktail was invented in Harry's New York Bar in the 1930s by
Harry McElhone, who is often also credited with creating many of the most famous cocktails in the world, including the Bloody Mary, Sidecar, the Monkey Gland, the Boulevardier, and an early form of the French 75. It is also usually thought to be a derivative of the Sidecar, which is also claimed to be a McElhone invention, differing only from the Sidecar by using less cognac and adding rum. Maiden's Prayer, a name sometimes used interchangeably for the Between the Sheets, is actually another variation from the same family that uses gin instead of rum and cognac and adds orange juice to the lemon juice.