Knickebein

Knickebein , or “knee bend,” is a German, and German American, variant of the Pousse Café involving an unbroken egg yolk taken in a regimented four-step process. See Pousse Café. Leo Engel, a German American expatriate tending bar at the American Bar in London’s Criterion restaurant first detailed this layered cocktail ceremony in 1878, although it had apparently been in circulation for at least a decade before that. See Criterion; and Engel, Leo. His version was equal parts of curaçao, crème de noyaux, and maraschino liqueur, filling the bottom two-thirds of a port glass. Next, an unbroken egg yolk was floated, and the whole drink was topped with whipped egg whites garnished with a few drops of Angostura bitters. Later variations used different liqueurs and occasionally included a spirit layer to separate the yolk and white layers; as a 1913 German bar book noted, “One can produce this drink in many variations,” going on to list fourteen of them. Any combination works if the liqueur layers are denser than yolk (approximately 1.025 g/ml). In the literature, some books erroneously have the ingredients shaken like a flip and represent the flavors but not the concept of the drink. See flip. William Boothby declared, “This famous Teutonic beverage is little known in America, and few bartenders have ever acquired the art of compounding one. It is an after-dinner drink, and in order to be fully appreciated, it must be partaken of according to the following directions, as four different sensations are experienced by the drinker. Therefore, the duty of the presiding mixologist is to thoroughly explain to the uninitiated the modus operandi, etc.” See Boothby, William T. “Cocktail Bill”. Engel described the ceremony:

1. Pass the glass under the Nostrils and Inhale the Flavour.—Pause.

2. Hold the glass perpendicularly, close under your mouth, open it wide, and suck the froth by drawing a Deep Breath.—Pause again.

3. Point the lips and take one-third of the liquid contents remaining in the glass without touching the yolk.—Pause once more.

4. Straighten the body, throw the head backward, swallow the contents remaining in the glass all at once, at the same time breaking the yolk in your mouth.

Recipe (Leo’s Knickebein): Separate an egg and whip the white. Pour into a 60-ml, conical, stemmed sherry glass 15 ml each of maraschino, crème de noyaux, and orange curaçao (these may be mixed together or floated in layers, in the order listed). Carefully add the egg yolk and spoon the egg white on top. Dash with Angostura bitters. Sip as above.

See also Angostura Bitters; eggs; and Engel, Leo.

Boothby, William T. The World’s Drinks and How to Mix Them. San Francisco: Pacific Buffet, 1908.

Engel, Leo. American and Other Drinks. London: Tinsley Brothers, 1878.

“Knickebein” (saloon advertisement). San Francisco Bulletin, March 30, 1869, 4.

Leybold, John, and Hans Schönfeld. Lexicon der getränke. Cologne: Verlag von Leybold & Schönfeld, 1913.

By: Frederic Yarm