The Monkey Gland is a gin sour with one of bartending's strangest names. Two ounces of gin, an ounce of fresh orange juice, a barspoon of grenadine, and a few drops of absinthe — that's the drink. Its name comes from Serge Voronoff, a French-Russian surgeon who in the early 1920s was transplanting slices of monkey testicles into human men as a supposed cure for aging. The procedure was front-page news; Harry MacElhone, the bar manager at Harry's New York Bar in Paris, named the cocktail after it, around 1923.
This cocktail was invented by Harry, of Ciro's Club, London.
Harry MacElhone, ABC of Mixing Cocktails (1923)The Voronoff Connection
Voronoff's monkey-gland transplant procedure was a real medical operation performed in Paris hospitals between roughly 1920 and 1930. It was a fad rather than a treatment — Voronoff was a celebrity surgeon, his patients were wealthy men, and the procedure was widely covered in the press. By 1923 it was sufficiently in the air that MacElhone could name a cocktail after it and expect the joke to land. The procedure was discredited in the 1930s; the cocktail outlived the surgery by a century.
MacElhone, a Scottish bartender, ran Harry's New York Bar at 5 Rue Daunou in Paris from 1923 onward (he had bought the bar that year). The Monkey Gland is one of several cocktails from his early years there, alongside the Sidecar, the French 75, and the Boulevardier — all of which appear in his various Paris bar books across the 1920s. The Monkey Gland's first print appearance is the 1923 edition of his ABC of Mixing Cocktails.
The Spec
Two ounces gin, one ounce fresh orange juice, a barspoon (about a teaspoon) of grenadine, and two or three drops of absinthe. Most modern recipes rinse the glass with absinthe rather than shaking it in; both methods work but a rinse is more controllable. Shake hard with ice, strain into a chilled coupe.
Real Grenadine, Not Red Sugar Syrup
The supermarket bottle labeled "grenadine" is high-fructose corn syrup with red dye — it has no pomegranate in it. Real grenadine is pomegranate juice reduced with sugar; you can make it in 20 minutes at home, or buy a bottle from Liber & Co. or Small Hand Foods. The drink is unrecognizable without the real thing.
Fresh Orange Juice Is Mandatory
Carton orange juice has been heated to kill bacteria; the resulting flavor is flat and slightly cooked. Squeeze the orange right before mixing. Without fresh juice, the cocktail tastes like a flavored vodka soda.
Glassware and Garnish
A chilled coupe. Either no garnish or a brandied cherry. An orange peel is also defensible. The drink doesn't need much past what's already in the glass.
Bottom Line
Despite the name, the Monkey Gland is one of the simpler gin sours of the 1920s — three measurable ingredients plus a perfume of absinthe. It rewards a good gin, a real grenadine, and fresh juice. Make it once, tell the table where the name came from, and watch a 100-year-old joke still land.