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Lesser Classic Cocktails in a New Book

The new book Let's Bring Back: The Cocktail Edition: A Compendium of Impish, Romantic, Amusing, and Occasionally Appalling Potations from Bygone Eras by Lesley M. M. Blume is a humorous, illustrated book that lists recipes for lesser-known vintage drinks like the Laughing Soup, Gloom Lifter, and Battery Charger. 

I wrote about it here on FineCooking.com and included the recipe for the Leave-It-To-Me Cocktail.

A lot of the recipes in the book call for apricot brandy, a combination of sweet/dry vermouth and bitters, orange juice, eggs, absinthe, and grenadine. Not all together. So in some ways you can see why they're lesser-known vintage cocktails compared to the Manhattan and Negroni. 

So one wouldn't neccesarily want to make all the recipes in it- many are a bit close to each other in formulation- but it's a really cute book with nice illustrations and a good sense of humor all the way around. It should make a good gift book this year. 

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Shots Get Sophisticated

Book Review: Destination Cocktails

The Double Rainbow Cocktail in a New Recipe Book

The Double Rainbow Cocktail in a New Recipe Book

In 2010 I created the Double Rainbow Cocktail, a simple drink I named after the YouTube video. It contains vodka, St. Germain elderflower liqueur, grapefruit bitters, and soda water, and has a lemon peel garnish. 

Anyway, now it's in a mini cocktail book called The Cocktail Hour: Vodka. 

It's a 3"x5" book of about 30 recipes plus a few infusions, with black and white illustrations. It's part of a series - there is a rum and a gin book too. 

Just thought I'd let you know. 

Drink Like Hemingway With Philip Greene's New Book

Philip Greene's book To Have and Have Another: A Hemingway Cocktail Companion was released last week. It is full of good stuff.

The book is organized by cocktail, and for each one it tells the story of how the characters in Hemingway's books consumed the drink, or how Hemingway himself consumed the drinks based on information from his letters. It ends up being a Cliffs Notes study of Hemingway's books and life through the lens of the cocktails in them. 

We learn a lot about the man in the process and just how fussy he was when it came to drinks. Though he drank locally when in other countries and spent a huge amount of time in hotel bars, when serving himself he had specific rules like his choice of spirits (Gordon's gin and Noilly Prat vermouth), the coldness of his Martinis (he made ice in tennis ball cans at -15 degrees and froze his glasses), the style of serving drinks (it seems one of his assistants' main responsibilities was preparing drinks at just the right time and in just the right way), and bringing his own cocktail ingredients to parties and making everyone proper cocktails.

We also learn about his consumption habits, like how he didn't drink while working but sucked down huge amounts of cocktails when not behind the typewriter and went on multiple day drinking binges with friends (sounds like me at Tales of the Cocktail). And we learn about the uniqueness of his writing - Greene points out how epicurean Hemingway was to include all of this cocktail information, and we see how the drinks in some ways set the scenes for the action. 

Finally, of course, we have the recipes. Most are classic recipes (like the Martini and Negroni), but there are also many local ways of consuming spirits mentioned (like the Ojen Special or Vermouth & Seltzer), along with some Hemingway originals and variations of cocktails like the Jack Rose and Tom Collins. 

I wrote about Hemingway's Tom Collins recipe over at FineCooking.com. He calls for coconut water in place of soda water, and no added sugar as was his style. The recipe is here.

All said, the book is a fun read with the lovely combination of cocktails and literature that people seem to enjoy. 

 

Shots Get Sophisticated

Andrew Bohrer from Seattle has a book out called The Best Shots You've Never Tried: 100+ Intoxicating Oddities Youll Actually Want to Put Down. 

It includes many classics reconfigured into shot form, farmer's market shots, and some bizarre ones called "Shots of Last Resort" made from things like sweet & sour sauce packets and Italian salad dressing.

It got me thinking that rather than trying to do cocktail pairing dinners, someone should do a pairing meal with the drinks in shot form as palate cleansers between courses, as many people complain that cocktails contain too much alcohol to go with food. 

On FineCooking.com, I got all philosphical about it.

Shots don't need to be small drinks that we consume in large quantities, but can be small, singular bursts of flavor that we use to mark moments. These drinks can be offered as an amuse-bouche or welcome drink at a party, as palate cleansers between courses of a meal, or as parting gifts on the way out the door. It could be fun to offer culinary shots such as those in the book to pair with each course of a meal, rather than a full cocktail that contains a larger dose of alcohol than desired.

I also share a recipe for the Sorbet Shot from the book, which is made with grappa, limoncello, and rosemary. 

Get the recipe here.

Book Review: Destination Cocktails

The new book Destination Cocktails by James Teitelbaum features reviews of 350 bars in 40 countries. 

It's amazingly up-to-date, and even lists some bars surely to be on the radar that weren't open yet when the book came out, like Portland's Hale Pele, or that still haven't opened yet, like San Francisco's Trick Dog.

As I wrote in my FineCooking.com column:

The book would certainly be of interest to any cocktail fan planning to do a bit of traveling (unlike bar reviews on the internet, the book sticks to just the best places) in the US or abroad, or to read as an intellectual exercise, learning about the current global state of the cocktail bar. 

It isn't a cocktail book, but there are a few cocktail recipes in it. I included one in my blog post on Fine Cooking. It contains, bourbon, Pimm's, Cherry Heering, lime juice, and bitters. Check it out. 

 

Sea Salt and Lime Soda from a New Soda Book

Over at FineCooking.com, I put up a recipe for Sea Salt-Lime Syrup.

It comes from the new book The Artisan Soda Workshop, which has 70 recipes for syrups. The book is pretty awesome and you should especially buy it if you own a soda maker. 

El Presidente: Curacao or Grenadine or Both?

The El Presidente cocktail has an interesting history, as illuminated by Jared Brown and Anistatia Miller in their book Cuban Cocktails. 

It may have been created by one bartender but taken on by another. It was probably named for one president then adopted and adapted to another. 

It first contained curacao as a sweetener then grenadine came into the mix. 

I wrote a little summary of the history of the drink in my latest post for FineCooking.com here.

I also posted the recipe as made by Tim Stookey at the Presidio Social Club. 

Question: Do you have a preferred recipe for the El Presidente? And do you use curacao or grenadine or both? 

Edible Cocktails from The Liquid Muse

In my latest post over at FineCooking.com, I review and share a recipe from the new book Edible Cocktails by my pal Natalie Bovis, aka The Liquid Muse.

The new book Edible Cocktails by Natalie Bovis (known in the cocktail blog world as The Liquid Muse) is a recipe book that builds drinks around fresh ingredients. 

The book doesn't merely call for fresh juices and herbs, it instructs readers on how to use fresh ingredients to make jams, jellies, syrups, infusions, liqueurs, and other mixers, and then use them in fresh-forward cocktails.

Most drink recipes in the book include sub-recipes for homemade ingredients from items found in the garden or farmer's market. To crafty Fine Cooking readers with experience making all sorts of preserves the book will guide with recipes in which to use them, and for cooking-challenged mixologists (self included) the book is full of ideas on how to turn all those fresh fruits and herbs into drinkable liquid ingredients. I think it's the best garden-to-glass cocktail book out there and I'm looking forward to working my way through all the drinks.

The book looks awesome. For now, I have posted a recipe from the book for the Brazilian Breakfast, which was created by Jacob Briars. It's a take on Salvatore Calabrese's Breakfast Martini, but made with cachaca.

You'll have to check out FineCooking.com for the recipe.