Message 23988 of 39188 in General Discussion

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I have to admit, this post has been ping-ponging around in my head since it 
was first posted and I've been trying to figure out the proper follow up.  At 
first blush, it would seem that George is absolutely right in marginalizing 
the Jerry Thomas book.  But that would be missing the mark and several salient 
points.
In no particular order and ordered in no particular manner:

For all intents and purposes, Jerry Thomas' book was the "first" drinks book.  
Yes, mixed drinks and other alcoholic concoctions existed long before his 1862 
publication, but he makes very few claims to being the "author" of those 
drinks.

As one of those itinerant, journeyman bartenders--he worked in St Louis, New 
Haven, New Orleans, New York and San Francisco, as well as touring Europe--his 
book is an interesting "butterfly collection" of what he learned and 
discovered along the way.

More than just a "wad-o-drinks" collection, Professor Thomas' publication was 
more like a manual for owning your own bar.  The $2.50 price, at the time, was 
equal to a hefty investment of several hundred dollars and the "2nd" "bonus" 
book, Christian Schultz's recipes and directions for making a hundred or more 
distillates, hydrosols and syrups etc rendered this volume a complete resource 
for the would-be saloon keeper.  This firmly sets this book in period, when 
any number of economic confluences made it possible for bars and saloons to be 
opened by anyone with the gumption, even, for the first time, women and 
immigrants.  Thomas' book could not have been successfully published much 
earlier than the 1860's.  The saloon itself, as we would recognize it, (as 
opposed to taverns, coffee shops etc) also dates to roughly this period.  
"How-To" manuals of many kinds find their birth in the mid-1800's.  Thomas' 
book is a milestone of sorts, as it created a "sub-genre" for the DIY set.

On the nature of "the Cocktail":  Thomas lists barely 10 of them, and most are 
redundant "fancy" versions.  The bulk of the book, however, is given over to 
Punches, Daisies, Fizzes, etc, etc. and the aforementioned Dr. Schultz' 
directions for composing things.  In Thomas' day, a cocktail was a simple, 
almost subversive affair, simply composed but always containing bitters.  
(Picture polite society today as you add a dash of Robitussin to your 
whisk(e)y.)  The anniversay we celebrate is not the "birth of the cocktail" 
but the birth of "cocktail" as a defined word.  For those of us troubled by 
the unsettled etymology of our favorite pastime, it's a way of reconciling our 
various....urges.

On Gauging Jerry Thomas' impact 150 years later: In the grand scheme of 
things, Thomas probably doesn't rank very highly on the bartender's richter 
scale.  But, (BUT!) in a very real sense, every time we make a flavorerd syrup 
or bring some other thing from the kitchen to the bar, every time we infuse 
something rather than purchase some ersatz flavored crap from a liquor 
conglomerate, every time we hold an old book looking for direction and 
inspiration, there stands Professor Jerry Thomas in the wings, with a wry 
(rye?) grin, thoroughly convinced that he started it all.

He very likely did.


myers

(edited to tidy things up a bit)