From Jerry Thomas Bar-Tenders Guide 1887 Reprint; image reproduced with permission from Ross Bolton.

This week's column is devoted to alleviating election stress with a knockout punch, assisted by the great pioneer mixologist Jerry Thomas, circa 1887. Thomas was not only a talented bartender, he was a great aggregator of recipes, collecting hundreds in his Bar-Tender's Guide (reprinted in 2008 by Ross Bolton) for "All Kinds of Sangarees, Mulls, Toddies, Slings, Sours, Juleps, Smashs [sic], Cobblers, Cocktails" -- and Punch, lots and lots of Punch.

For centuries, punch -- booze and flavorings in a bowl, on ice (or warm, occasionally) -- was the nation's preferred mode of imbibing, until roughly the latter half of the nineteenth century, when spirits finally got good enough not to require so much camouflage. Thomas's recipe collection includes the Spread Eagle Punch, the Bimbo Punch, Mississippi, Canadian, and West Indian Punches, Punches named for hotels and cities and saints, Punches named for the 7th Regiment, the 69th Regiment, and the Light Guard, whose fighting strength, after a bowl of Punch, was no doubt considerably reduced.

More »

Amazon

I was looking for a punch. I'm not sure why. I wasn't planning a party, but having just watched the first debate, keeping a recipe on hand that would obliterate all memory of politics and the election seemed like a very good thing.

A friend suggested that I consult Jerry Thomas' Bar-Tenders Guide. He did not tell me, at least not at first, that Jerry Thomas died in 1885, with a reputation as one of the country's first true mixologists, a bartender so famous he was given an obituary in The New York Times.

How odd it is that a bartender gets remembered at all. Bartenders, after all, make drinks, which are more ephemeral than meals and kisses, and are made and enjoyed mostly to complement more pressing social pursuits. More to the point, a bartender's particular skill set leads directly to inebriation, a state of mind that tends to limit one's memorability.

There is the occasional bartender whose dexterity with a bottle or a shaker can lead to a momentary thrill, like an exotic form of juggling (immortalized by Tom Cruise in Cocktail). This set of skills is known as "bar flair," and is, I've learned, scrutinized by an organization called the FBA (see barflair.org). To each his own.

More »

Amazon.com

My mother's boyfriend, Jim, is a collector. Or, more accurately, a hoarder. Not the scary rats-in-the-couch-under-the-dead-dog kind (not yet, at least), but still. The guy has a lot of stuff. A lifelong North Carolinian, his house in Winston-Salem is full of animal skulls, stacks of magazines, shrines to various deities, and many, many books. As soon as you arrive, he begins sorting through things, looking for the stack he's been arranging for you. He'll hand you an envelope or paper bag full of magazine clippings, books and other ephemera he's been collecting that reminded him of you.

On my most recent visit, my pile included a small book, published in 1934: Irvin S. Cobb's Own Recipe Book. Published by Frankfort Distilleries, the book is Cobb's thoughts on whiskey, mint juleps and life, and includes a few pages of cocktail recipes. There was a receipt in the book from the bookstore where Jim made the purchase. It is dated 1992.

More »

amazon

A few of the new booze books

Booze-themed cookbooks have never been terribly high on our everyday shopping lists, but there are those weekend moments when The Food of Morocco isn't quite what we're craving. OK, that's not really true. We'd be content with Paula Wolfert's harissa any day of the week. But we're all for occasionally having a little tipsy fun in the kitchen.

It also seems to be a trendy thing, as we've seen a steady stream of alcohol-inspired books arrive on our doorstep lately. The three that follow -- Beer, A Cookbook; Edible Cocktails; Never Cook Sober -- all happen to be from the same publisher, Adams Media (Beer, A Cookbook is actually a group effort from the Adams Media staff). Yeah, we're pretty sure they have really great office parties. Get a summary of each after the jump.

More »

mooreandgiles.com

The PDT Cocktail Book

With New Year's Eve looming, we're forgoing our usual cookbook of the week in favor of the libation version. Not just any cocktail book, but The PDT Cocktail Book by Jim Meehan and illustrator Chris Gall, the only beverage book that made it into our Best of 2011 "cookbook" list.

Yeah, we're already content with Mr. Boston's and his old school cocktail book buddies, which are being re-issued with vigor lately. Add in the slew of trendy new cocktail books making the rounds (presuming you're into that thyme-sage-whatever else simple syrup infusion sort of thing), and who needs another cocktail book? Or another classic Champagne cocktail recipe (get it after the jump). We do.

More »

jgarbee

Still Life With (Good) 2011 Cookbooks

Because if you still haven't gotten a gift for someone of genuine or obligatory importance on your list (your closest friend; your boss/mother in law), check those Amazon availability lists right now. Or better yet, stop by your local bookstore.

We've reviewed a lot of books this year, and we've already given you a few "favorites" lists. But here are what we consider The Best Cookbooks of 2011 (and one cocktail book for kicks). Not the best general cookbooks, practical as they are. These are those engaging (yet useful) cookbooks that for some reason, you just can't seem to put down. A motley crew of cookbooks on very different subjects for polar opposite audiences. The L.A. demographic in cookbook form, essentially.

More »

JGarbee

Mr Boston's Then (Left) And Now

With more editions than we can guesstimate, the 75th anniversary edition of Mr. Boston's Official Bartender's Guide arrived on our desk with little fanfare (on our end, at least). After all, the book's signature minimalist layout and no-frills recipes are the appeal. It's the sort of book you pick up when a dinner party guests announces, just after you've squeezed dozens of limes for tequilas, how much they really do love a classic Montreal Gin Sour (gin, lemon juice, powdered sugar). Or for some, Mr. Boston's is guaranteed Friday night cocktail roulette fun, the sort of guidebook you pull out blindfolded and point to a page to find some "Fancy Brandy" conversation fodder (brandy, triple sec, simple syrup, Angostura bitters, lemon twist).

In other words, why would anyone need this soon-to-be-released updated version?

More »

N. Galuten

Barman Brady Weise at Library Bar

In part one of our interview with Library Bar and 1886 bartender Brady Weise, we talked a lot about alcohol. We discussed the term "craft cocktail," the L.A. bar scene, and a little about the cocktail's history in the United States. In part 2, Weise tells about us how Americans learned to eventually make good drinks again after Prohibition, the resurgence of the classic cocktail, and what he hates making above all else.

Weise was also kind enough to pass along his own recipe, for a cocktail called, "Amore de Pemacchia" (check back later for that one). After all, the holidays are coming up, and what better excuse to start drinking than, "I just found this new cocktail recipe and I wanted to see how it turns out."

More »

Flickr user jennhx

To Get Beyond The Absinthe Drip, We Highly Recommend A Cocktail Book

Here's something to be thankful for in the wake of Prop 19's smoldering remains -- absinthe is still legal after three years. Which means you can serve a Green Fairy cocktail to your cranky aunt on Thanksgiving, just for kicks. You know, to see what really happens. Which cocktail? For starters you need to decide which book, as three new absinthe cocktail books were released this year. We all could use an absinthe cocktail book (a 100-year absence makes improvising a bit tricky), but we really don't need three.

Turn the page for our preferred book pick and a cocktail recipe that promises a "Thai hallucination." We're doing our best not to imagine exactly what that means.

More »

Speakeasy, a new cocktail book by Jason Kosmas and Dushan Zaric, is the story of a couple of bartenders in New York City circa 1998 (in Twitter time, the Stone Ages) who vowed to save Happy Hour with a properly mixed martini. It was a time, the authors say in the Introduction, when "New York was an exciting city with an air of perpetual adolescence." Until September 11, 2001.

Kosmas and Zaric recount how nightlife virtually disappeared as bars that used to stay open until 4 a.m. closed their doors by midnight. Swanky restaurant bars in the devastated city closed even earlier. "New York's restaurant employees were the ones most affected by this," they continue. "Our income became inconsistent, and there were few operations to go out after a hard night's work." And so they vowed to open an employee-owned cocktail lounge. In December of 2004, Employees Only opened its doors.

Which gets us to their first book, Speakeasy, a tightly packed, pretty little number with 160 pages of "classic cocktails re-imagined" according to the subtitle. Cocktails that are practical yet inspired enough (but not too much) that you'll actually want to make them.

More »