I'm reading an in between book. I'm on a quest this year to dig deep in the reading arena but my quest has been temporarily stalled by poor planning on my part. The quest is in the mail.
Anyway, TWO years ago Carol gave me a book at Christmas called Imbibe. It is written by a guy who did mammoth research on drink recipes in this country. He is also an old school guy who believes that drinks are better made in the old traditions.
I have picked that up to fill the gap.
There is a lot of history in there, which makes it readable. When the guy goes over drink recipes and then dissects ingredients and approach - it gets a tad dry.
Jerry P. Thomas was a legendary bartender back in the 1800's. They called him Professor Jerry Thomas. I like knowing a bartender can be legendary. I would have been legendary if I were a 23 year old babe with endless cleavage and a hypnotic smile. But that's a story for another place and time.
He was born around 1830. He was a gold miner, a Broadway dandy, a minor theatrical impresario, an art collector, an artist, an inventor, an author and a gambler. he owned bars, he lost bars, he worked in seedy places, he worked in upper crust places. It was a wide open world in those days. Now you inadvertently slip into a "career" and you are stuck. Ain't nobody looking for free thinkers.
He worked as a bartender wherever the bartending was good. As the party moved from city to city and even across the ocean - he followed it.
He lived at a time when drinks were changing at a rapid pace. Used to be punch was the big deal. Everybody gathered and drank out of a bowl. Then ice came upon the scene and new liqueurs and mixers and the cocktail was born. And along with that came creativity.
Apparently Jerry P. was a creative sort, experimenting with recipes, ice (shaved, chipped or chunk), garnishes etc. He wrote a bartending book which is long on drinks but short on recipes. His recipes were not exact. Like any good artiste in the kitchen or behind the bar.
As I read about booze I continue to develop an impression of the soul of this country. I recently read a book about Prohibition. The driving force behind that was the level of boozing in this country. It was massive and destructive. But as I read this book, the author continually refers to the massive drinking being done in the 1800's. I propose drinking copious amounts of booze is part of the marrow of this country along with unconscionable violence. Which is frightening. But that's a topic for another day and time.
As cocktails evolved it's hilarious to read how they were hyped. Initially they were passed off as a sort of medicine to be consumed upon rising to ward off the effects of the night before. Drunkenness being implicit but not explicit in "the effects of the night before." It was routine to crawl out of bed and have two or three drinks as "eye openers." My favorite description from this book is "corpse revivers." That will be the phrase I use from here on in to describe a morning cocktail providing relief from a night of revelry.
Morning drinks considered acceptable. Gotta love that. Today if you have a drink before noon there is some phony standing by, hands on hips, to accuse you of having a problem. Then they walk off to beat their children and make love to their pets.
There are many amusing descriptions of drinks and what they do to you and for you but I am running out of time. So I leave you with the last stanza of a verse written as an ode to the champagne cocktail, which enjoyed a considerable reputation as a corpse reviver when it first came upon the scene:
"And the morn shall be filled with cocktail,
And the cares of the early day,
Like disappointed collectors,
Shall silently slip away."
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