The School of Sophisticated Drinking

Author: Kerstin Ehmer
Publisher: Greystone Books
ISBN: 1771641207
Category : Cooking
Languages : en
Pages : 262

Book Description
Wherever and whenever people have been found talking, they have been found drinking: an age-old pastime with an equally storied history. Alcohol and civilization have developed in close quarters, sometimes supporting each other and sometimes getting in each other’s way. The School of Sophisticated Drinking, which began as an ongoing series of lectures at Berlin’s legendary Victoria Bar in 2003, traces the deep-seated lineage of drinking in the social, political, and even scientific developments of our culture. Appealing to both expert drinkers and novice barflies, each chapter delves into the sociopolitical significance of and technological innovations behind a familiar wine or spirit—brandy, vodka, whisky, rum, gin, tequila, and champagne—and shares plenty of tales of adventure, from the glamour of Hollywood and Broadway, to the tormented worlds of well-known writers, to the outbreak of wars and the unending struggle for economic and military power. The reader’s thirst for knowledge can be further quenched by trying any or all of the enticing cocktail recipes gathered at the end of the book.

Doctors and Distillers

Author: Camper English
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0143134922
Category : Cooking
Languages : en
Pages : 369

Book Description
“At last, a definitive guide to the medicinal origins of every bottle behind the bar! This is the cocktail book of the year, if not the decade.” —Amy Stewart, author of The Drunken Botanist and Wicked Plants “A fascinating book that makes a brilliant historical case for what I’ve been saying all along: alcohol is good for you…okay maybe it’s not technically good for you, but [English] shows that through most of human history, it’s sure beat the heck out of water.” —Alton Brown, creator of Good Eats Beer-based wound care, deworming with wine, whiskey for snakebites, and medicinal mixers to defeat malaria, scurvy, and plague: how today's tipples were the tonics of old. Alcohol and Medicine have an inextricably intertwined history, with innovations in each altering the path of the other. The story stretches back to ancient times, when beer and wine were used to provide nutrition and hydration, and were employed as solvents for healing botanicals. Over time, alchemists distilled elixirs designed to cure all diseases, monastic apothecaries developed mystical botanical liqueurs, traveling physicians concocted dubious intoxicating nostrums, and the drinks we’re familiar with today began to take form. In turn, scientists studied fermentation and formed the germ theory of disease, and developed an understanding of elemental gases and anesthetics. Modern cocktails like the Old-Fashioned, Gimlet, and Gin and Tonic were born as delicious remedies for diseases and discomforts. In Doctors and Distillers, cocktails and spirits expert Camper English reveals how and why the contents of our medicine and liquor cabinets were, until surprisingly recently, one and the same.

Drinking History

Author: Andrew F. Smith
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 0231151179
Category : Cooking
Languages : en
Pages : 336

Book Description
A companion to Andrew F. Smith’s critically acclaimed and popular Eating History: Thirty Turning Points in the Making of American Cuisine, this volume recounts the individuals, ingredients, corporations, controversies, and myriad events responsible for America’s diverse and complex beverage scene. Smith revisits the country’s major historical moments—colonization, the American Revolution, the Whiskey Rebellion, the temperance movement, Prohibition, and its repeal—and he tracks the growth of the American beverage industry throughout the world. The result is an intoxicating encounter with an often overlooked aspect of American culture and global influence. Americans have invented, adopted, modified, and commercialized tens of thousands of beverages—whether alcoholic or nonalcoholic, carbonated or caffeinated, warm or frozen, watery or thick, spicy or sweet. These include uncommon cocktails, varieties of coffee and milk, and such iconic creations as Welch’s Grape Juice, Coca-Cola, root beer, and Kool-Aid. Involved in their creation and promotion were entrepreneurs and environmentalists, bartenders and bottlers, politicians and lobbyists, organized and unorganized criminals, teetotalers and drunks, German and Italian immigrants, savvy advertisers and gullible consumers, prohibitionists and medical professionals, and everyday Americans in love with their brew. Smith weaves a wild history full of surprising stories and explanations for such classic slogans as “taxation with and without representation;” “the lips that touch wine will never touch mine;” and “rum, Romanism, and rebellion.” He reintroduces readers to Samuel Adams, Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, and the colorful John Chapman (Johnny Appleseed), and he rediscovers America’s vast literary and cultural engagement with beverages and their relationship to politics, identity, and health.

Masters of Craft

Author: Richard E. Ocejo
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691183198
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 368

Book Description
In today’s new economy—in which “good” jobs are typically knowledge or technology based—many well-educated and culturally savvy young people are instead choosing to pursue traditionally low-status manual labor occupations as careers. Masters of Craft looks at the renaissance of four such trades: bartending, distilling, barbering, and butchering. In this engaging book, Richard Ocejo takes you into the lives and workplaces of these people to examine how they are transforming once-undesirable jobs into “cool” and highly specialized upscale occupations. He shows how they find meaning in these jobs by enacting a set of “cultural repertoires,” resulting in a new form of elite taste-making. Focusing on cocktail bartenders, craft distillers, upscale men’s barbers, and whole-animal butcher shop workers in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and upstate New York, Masters of Craft provides new insights into the stratification of taste, the spread of gentrification, and the evolving labor market in today’s postindustrial city.

The PDT Cocktail Book

Author: Jim Meehan
Publisher: Union Square & Co.
ISBN: 1402798598
Category : Cooking
Languages : en
Pages : 279

Book Description
Beautifully illustrated, beautifully designed, and beautifully crafted--just like its namesake--this is the ultimate bar book by NYCs most meticulous bartender. To say that PDT is a unique bar is an understatement. It recalls the era of hidden Prohibition speakeasies: to gain access, you walk into a raucous hot dog stand, step into a phone booth, and get permission to enter the serene cocktail lounge. Now, Jim Meehan, PDTs innovative operator and mixmaster, is revolutionizing bar books, too, offering all 304 cocktail recipes available at PDT plus behind-the-scenes secrets. From his bar design, tools, and equipment to his techniques, food, and spirits, its all here, stunningly illustrated by Chris Gall.

Principles and Practices of Bar and Beverage Management

Author: James Murphy
Publisher: Goodfellow Publishers Ltd
ISBN: 1908999381
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 258

Book Description
A comprehensive text and resource book designed to explain the latest developments in and new complexities of managing modern bars- be they stand alone or part of larger institutions such as hotels and resorts.

Shaken Not Stirred

Author: Anistatia R. Miller
Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 0062734881
Category : Cooking
Languages : en
Pages : 164

Book Description
This first-of-its-kind volume features 40 ways to make a classic martini, 60 nouveau concoctions and a directory of the world's best martini lounges. Here, readers will discover the finer points of gin versus vodka, olive versus twist, shaken versus stirred, as well as brands of liquor, ratios of ingredients and every facet of this highly ritualized and specific cocktail. Also included are looks at and recipes for the weird and wonderful new offspring of the martini renaissance: chocolate and espresso martinis, the Cajun Combustion Engine, Martini Navratilova, Very Berry Martini, Pasini Express, Berlin Station Chief and many more. With sidebars featuring quotes from literature, toasts and historical points of interest, plus photos recalling great martini moments in film, politics, culture and advertising, Shaken Not Stirred is a fabulous celebration of a classic and very au courant international tradition.

Handbook of Molecular Gastronomy

Author: Róisín Burke
Publisher: CRC Press
ISBN: 1466594799
Category : Health & Fitness
Languages : en
Pages : 895

Book Description
Handbook of Molecular Gastronomy: Scientific Foundations and Culinary Applications presents a unique overview of molecular gastronomy, the scientific discipline dedicated to the study of phenomena that occur during the preparation and consumption of dishes. It deals with the chemistry, biology and physics of food preparation, along with the physiology of food consumption. As such, it represents the first attempt at a comprehensive reference in molecular gastronomy, along with a practical guide, through selected examples, to molecular cuisine and the more recent applications named note by note cuisine. While several books already exist for a general audience, either addressing food science in general in a "light" way and/or dealing with modern cooking techniques and recipes, no book exists so far that encompasses the whole molecular gastronomy field, providing a strong interdisciplinary background in the physics, biology and chemistry of food and food preparation, along with good discussions on creativity and the art of cooking. Features: Gives A–Z coverage to the underlying science (physics, chemistry and biology) and technology, as well as all the key cooking issues (ingredients, tools and methods). Encompasses the science and practice of molecular gastronomy in the most accessible and up-to-date reference available. Contains a final section with unique recipes by famous chefs. The book is organized in three parts. The first and main part is about the scientific discipline of molecular and physical gastronomy; it is organized as an encyclopedia, with entries in alphabetical order, gathering the contributions of more than 100 authors, all leading scientists in food sciences, providing a broad overview of the most recent research in molecular gastronomy. The second part addresses educational applications of molecular gastronomy, from primary schools to universities. The third part provides some innovative recipes by chefs from various parts of the world. The authors have made a particular pedagogical effort in proposing several educational levels, from elementary introduction to deep scientific formalism, in order to satisfy the broadest possible audience (scientists and non-scientists). This new resource should be very useful to food scientists and chefs, as well as food and culinary science students and all lay people interested in gastronomy.

The Book of Gin

Author: Richard Barnett
Publisher: Open Road + Grove/Atlantic
ISBN: 0802194095
Category : Cooking
Languages : en
Pages : 283

Book Description
“An absorbing popular history of one of history’s most popular drinks.” —Booklist Gin has been a drink of kings infused with crushed pearls and rose petals, and a drink of the poor flavored with turpentine and sulfuric acid. Born in alchemists’ stills and monastery kitchens, its earliest incarnations were juniper flavored medicines used to prevent plague, ease the pains of childbirth, and even to treat a lack of courage. In The Book of Gin, Richard Barnett traces the life of this beguiling spirit, once believed to cause a “new kind of drunkenness.” In the eighteenth century, gin-crazed debauchery (and class conflict) inspired Hogarth’s satirical masterpieces “Beer Street” and “Gin Lane.” In the nineteenth century, gin was drunk by Napoleonic War naval heroes, at lavish gin palaces, and by homesick colonials, who mixed it with their bitter anti-malarial tonics. In the early twentieth century, the illicit cocktail culture of Prohibition made gin—often dangerous bathtub gin—fashionable again. And today, with the growth of small-batch distilling, gin has once-again made a comeback. Wide-ranging, impeccably researched, and packed with illuminating stories, The Book of Gin is lively and fascinating, an indispensable history of a complex and notorious drink. “The Book of Gin is full of history that will make you grin . . . An enchanting read.” —Cooking by the Book

Samuel Johnson as Book Reviewer

Author: Brian Hanley
Publisher: University of Delaware Press
ISBN: 9780874137361
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 308

Book Description
Critical analysis of Johnson's book reviews