Who says history is dry?

THE cocktail is “essentially an American contraption,” writes David Wondrich in “Imbibe!,” his new history/celebration of 19th century mixology: “How could it be anything but? It’s quick, direct and vigorous. It’s flashy and a little bit vulgar. It induces an unreflective overconfidence. It’s democratic, forcing the finest liquors to rub elbows with ingredients of far more humble stamp. It’s profligate with natural resources (think of all the electricity generated to make ice that gets used for 10 seconds and discarded).

“In short, it rocks.”

The hero of Wondrich’s book is “Professor” Jerry Thomas, author of “How to Mix Drinks, or the Bon Vivant’s Guide” (1862), the first published bartender’s manual. Thomas invented a number of cocktails, including the Tom and Jerry, which he named after himself (or perhaps, as he sometimes claimed, after his two pet rats). In his day, he was most famous for the Blue Blazer, which was mixed by tossing burning whiskey from one glass to another, preferably with the lights turned low. He published the first recipe for a gin fizz and the first cocktail recipe calling for a twist of lemon instead of the grated nutmeg of earlier times.

As Wondrich points out, the cocktail was the first American cultural product to impress the world. In the 1830s, having previously made little besides English-style punch, hot toddies and some rustic concoctions of rum or applejack, American bartenders suddenly showed a huge burst of creativity when ice became widely available. Wondrich calls the period from 1830 to 1885 the baroque era of the cocktail, when elaborate fruit garnishes and flamboyant showmanship were all.

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A dandy and gambler

Thomas was a larger-than-life character. At various periods of his life a sailor, Gold Rush miner, Broadway dandy, art collector and gambler as well as a celebrity mixologist, Thomas plied his trade in New York, New Orleans, Chicago and up and down California and the Mississippi River -- anywhere there was a big thirst. He was the leading bartender of the Civil War type, which, as a newspaper later recalled, “with his pomade-plastered hair, his alleged diamonds, his loud oaths and his general aspect of bravado, was a sort of a cross between a dandy and a highwayman.” The difference was that Thomas always sported real diamond rings and stickpins.

“How to Mix Drinks” has been reprinted many times, and you can even read the text online at www.theartofdrink.com/book. Wondrich concentrates on Thomas’ recipes but features other prominent bartenders of the era as well. In some cases, he says, it’s because he prefers their versions of a cocktail to Thomas’.

In others, he’s obviously just fascinated by the way odd-sounding old recipes can turn out to be delicious. He describes William Schmidt’s Weeper’s Joy (absinthe, vermouth, kummel, sugar syrup and curacao) as “a drink that looks like a train wreck on the page but tastes like an angel’s tears.”

But there’s another reason for including these other mixologists. “Imbibe!” aims to re-create the whole world of 19th century cocktails, from the punch-bowl era down to the post-1885 craving for classicism, which meant smaller drinks without the complicated garnishes and show-offy presentation of mid-century, accompanied by a new taste for elegant dryness (dry gin, dry rum, dry Champagne).

Wondrich is keenly interested in re-creating the exact flavor of American cocktails at the time when they were conquering the world.

So he urges the reader to use Demarara sugar for syrup because perfectly white sugar was rare back them. Eggs should be small (there were no jumbo eggs) and ice should be shaved or hand-cracked. Wondrich suggestsGrand Marnier as an alternative tocuracao and Dutch gin rather than dry London gin, and he proposes pink Zinfandel as a substitute for Catawba, a practically extinct East Coast wine.

This is admirable -- details make all the difference. Perhaps this book will persuade people to go out and make their own authentic maraschino cherries by soaking sour cherries in Maraschino liqueur.

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Clearing up mysteries

There’s an appendix of recipes for various 19th century bitters, some of which turn out not to be exactly replicable because they call for snakeroot, which is, you know, poisonous. Before that comes a selection of 16 newly created drinks by present-day bartenders. They’re a mixed bag and seem kind of tacked on, though maybe Wondrich is giving us a lesson here -- if the Weeper’s Joy is really wonderful, maybe a cocktail that calls for horseradish-infused vodka or an El Bulli-type foam of Campari and rosehip jam is wonderful too.

Those modern recipes aside, this book is a model of food history writing. Wondrich is knowledgeable, and he’s intent on clearing up various mysteries about the history of the cocktail. Sometimes, with his detailed notes about forgotten techniques and mysterious ingredients, he skirts close to the obsessive, but he’s always an enjoyable writer, curious, eager, mildly opinionated and with a taste for the amusing.

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charles.perry@latimes.com

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Sazerac

Total time: 5 minutes

Servings: 1

Note: Adapted from “Imbibe!” by David Wondrich. The author recommends the Sazerac company’s 6-year-old rye whiskey or the Rittenhouse Bonded Rye. The drink should be served in a Manhattan-style cocktail glass.

1/2 cube sugar ( 1/2 teaspoon)

2 ounces rye whiskey

2 dashes Peychaud’s bitters

Lemon peel twist

Dash (several drops) absinthe

1. Fill the cocktail glass with ice and allow to chill. In a cocktail shaker, muddle together the sugar with one-half teaspoon water. Add a few ice cubes to the shaker, along with the whiskey, bitters and lemon twist, and stir the mixture until it is cold.

2. Discard the ice in the cocktail glass and add a dash of absinthe to the glass. Swirl the glass to allow the absinthe to coat the interior. Strain the cocktail into the glass and serve with a glass of ice water on the side.

Each serving: 147 calories; 0 protein; 4 grams carbohydrates; 0 fiber; 0 fat; 0 cholesterol; 1 mg. sodium.

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Japanese cocktail

Total time: 5 minutes

Servings: 1

Note: Adapted from “Imbibe!” This cocktail, created by Jerry Thomas, was popular from the 1860s until Prohibition.

1 tablespoon orgeat almond syrup

1/2 teaspoon Fee Bros. aromatic bitters

2 ounces brandy

1 to 2 lemon peel strips

Fill a small bar glass one-third full of ice, add the orgeat almond syrup, bitters, brandy and lemon peel and stir until mixed and cold. Serve immediately. Alternatively, combine the ingredients with a few cubes of ice in a cocktail shaker. Stir the cocktail and strain into a martini-type glass; serve immediately.

Each serving: 219 calories; 0 protein; 17 grams carbohydrates; 0 fiber; 0 fat; 0 mg. cholesterol; 3 mg. sodium.

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Prince of Wales’ cocktail

Total time: 8 minutes

Servings: 1

Note: Adapted from “Imbibe!,” originally created by the young Edward VII of the United Kingdom.

1 teaspoon powdered sugar, or to taste

Dash Angostura bitters

1 1/2 ounces rye whiskey

1/4 teaspoon Maraschino liqueur

Small square of pineapple (1-inch square by 1/2 -inch thick)

1 ounce brut Champagne

Strip of lemon zest

Put the sugar in a mixing glass with the bitters and one-half teaspoon water. Stir briefly until it has dissolved. Add the rye, the maraschino and pineapple chunk. Fill two-thirds full of cracked ice and shake vigorously to crush the pineapple. Strain into a chilled martini glass; add the cold Champagne. Garnish with a twist of lemon zest. Serve immediately.

Each serving: 143 calories; 0 protein; 7 grams carbohydrates; 0 fiber; 0 fat; 0 cholesterol; 1 mg. sodium.

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Crusta

Total time: 15 minutes, plus cooling time for the syrup

Servings: 1

Note: Adapted from “Imbibe!” You may substitute Grand Marnier for the curacao.

2 cups sugar, plus extra for garnishing the glass,

divided

1 egg white

1 lemon

2 dashes bitters

2 ounces brandy

1/2 teaspoon orange curacao

1. To make the gum syrup: In a medium saucepan, combine the 2 cups sugar with one-half cup of water. Add the egg white and stir until combined. Cook the mixture over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally until the egg white has cooked and risen to the top, about 5 minutes. Strain it and any impurities floating to the surface, until you have a clear syrup. Strain the finished syrup through a cheesecloth-lined strainer into a nonreactive or glass container; you will have about 1 1/2 cups. Cool the gum syrup in an ice bath; it will keep for 1 week refrigerated.

2. Pare half of the lemon zest the same as you would an apple (all in one piece) so it will fit nicely into a wine glass. Slice one slice from the lemon, and juice 1 teaspoon of the remaining lemon. Reserve all.

3. Combine 1 teaspoon of the gum syrup, the bitters, brandy, curacao and lemon juice in a shaker with ice. Take the slice of lemon and run it around the rim of the wine glass. Dip the glass in the sugar, so that the sugar adheres to the rim. Fit the lemon peel into the prepared wine glass, then strain the cocktail into the glass. Serve immediately.

Each serving: 180 calories; 0 protein; 9 grams carbohydrates; 0 fiber; 0 fat; 0 cholesterol; 2 mg. sodium.