Tacos by Alex Stupak and Jordana Rothman

Tacos may very well be the perfect food. Of course, there's a lot of room to argue this point, but it's hard to resist a warm star filling with a spicy salsa and a few garnishes folded into an earthy warm corn or flour tortilla. It's a basic formula that allows for seemingly endless combinations.

Basic, yes, but simple, not necessarily, at least not as presented in Tacos: Recipes and Provocations, the James Beard Award-nominated cookbook from Empellón chef Alex Stupak and food writer Jordana Rothman. For those who view tacos as a "quick" dinner of pre-made taco shells, pre-shredded cheese and ground meat browned for 10 minutes with a pre-mixed seasoning pack, this Tacos book is not for you. For those interested in rolling up your sleeves to create sophisticated flavors with a wide variety of interesting ingredients and homemade salsas, Tacos is a eye-opening look at the potential for how the basic foundation of a taco can be expanded upon in a myriad of ways.

Before I get into the tacos themselves, let's consider Stupak's interesting career for a moment. Born in Massachusetts and educated at the Culinary Institute of America, the young chef first made his name in the late 2000s as a modernist pastry chef working for Grant Achatz at Alinea in Chicago and for Wylie Dufresne at (the now defunct) WD~50 in New York, two of the most acclaimed modernist establishments in the country. That he would walk away from this in the 2010s to instead cook Mexican food--a cuisine from another country steeped in tradition for which he had no apparent experience--was a remarkable risk. But clearly it's one that has paid off. Empellón Taqueria was a success, followed by Empellón Cocina and Empellón al Pastor. I've been to two of these establishments and was particularly smitten with the fine cooking at Empellón Taqueria.

Stupak addresses his amazing transformation in the book's introduction, noting that despite his Massachusetts upbringing with "Old El Paso taco nights," he later became fascinated with more authentic Mexican food while living in Chicago. With a Rick Bayless cookbook in hand, Stupak became obsessed with learning his hand at the cuisine. A trip to Los Angeles solidified his affinity for freshly made tortillas, his first of which he names as one of his three defining moments as a cook.

Empellon's website defines "empellón" as meaning to "to push or jostle" and "to break through." Both are apt words for describing how the Empellón restaurants have helped elevate the status of Mexican cuisine while also allowing Stupak to reinvent his position in the restaurant world. Stupak brings this up in the introduction to explain his approach to Mexican. He's not interested in simplifying a foreign cuisine for American palates (and patience or lack thereof).

So, as I mentioned above, don't go into this book expecting simplicity. You know how experienced cooks always recommend reading through a recipe first before beginning it? You'll definitely want to do that here, as you'll need to consider the time for making not just the taco in the recipe but also the accompanying salsa. Many of the recipes require cooking times of multiple hours. These are not recipes to break out for dinner after a full workday.

Chicken Tacos with Kale and Salsa Verde

I tried three of what I perceived to the book's simpler recipes, and even these were pretty involved. First I made the Chicken Tacos with Kale and Salsa Verde, a wonderful dish mad with roasted chicken thighs and a raw salsa verde that the kale is cooked in. The tacos are garnished with queso fresco, diced raw onion, cilantro and lime. In total, it took me about 2 hours to make this dish, and the tacos were delicious. (Note that I did not make my own corn tortillas for these or any of the other tacos here. Stupak includes a recipe for them, and I have made my own tortillas in my past, but I went the store-bought route here as I could find masa marina).

Cheeseburger tacos

Next up, I tackled the cheeseburger tacos. They may sound like a bad Tex-Mex idea, but Stupak says they are actually found in Mexico City (inspired, of course, by American cheeseburgers). This one is actually doable on a weeknight, as the only cooking really is browning the ground beef and the accompanying salsa roja is not difficult to prepare. In a sense, this is the closest the book comes to those "Old El Paso" tacos Stupak references in the introduction, although I think this is far more interesting. I included my own little twist to the recipe: the addition of sweet pickles, which I think nicely offset the spicy salsa.

Salsa Roja

And yes, this salsa is pretty spicy, but it's also amazingly good. The spicy-sweet salsa, which has a touch of vinegar, serves as the "ketchup" in the cheeseburger tacos. The salsa is made with dried guajillo chile peppers--10 in the book but I dialed that back to a still-quite-spicy 5. It's a tomato-based salsa that is probably the pureed red salsa marked "hot" that you see at taquerias. Unfortunately, I found an error in this recipe, but it's a simple one to fix, and I think most cooks will realize what to do. The first step involves roasting tomatoes, which are then cooled, peeled and set aside--to then never appear again in the instructions (I assume they should be added to the blender along with the soaked chiles, garlic and spices).

Mashed Pea Tacos (with bacon)

Lastly, wanting something green, I tried the Mashed Pea Tacos, which are perfect for spring. This recipe is also fairly simple and less time-intensive. The only cooking involved is blanching the peas, which are then whirled with parmesan in a food processor until smooth (I added a little water to give the choppy puree a smoother texture). Vegetarians will abhor the other change I made: I added bacon. I know, it's meant to be a vegetarian recipe, but the bacon and pea combination was really quite good here, so I don't feel any shame in suggesting it.

The James Beard Book, Broadcast & Journalism Awards are tomorrow night, where Tacos will compete for the Single-Subject Book award with A Bird in the Hand: Chicken Recipes for Every Day and Every Mood by Diana Henry and Mastering Pasta: The Art and Practice of Handmade Pasta, Gnocchi, and Risotto by Marc Vetri with David Joachim.

Cheeseburger Tacos with Salsa Roja
Adapted from recipes in Tacos by Alex Stupak and Jordana Rothmans

I adapted this recipe by using fewer chiles and omitting the chipotle chile in the salsa roja and substituting canned roasted tomatoes for fresh plum tomatoes. I also reduced the amount of cheese by half, substituted guacamole for sliced avocado and added sweet pickles to the tacos.

Makes 12 tacos

Salsa roja:

5 dried guajillo chiles (split open with stems and seeds removed)
1/2 tsp. dried Mexican oregano
1/8 tsp. cumin seeds
5 garlic cloves (unpeeled)
1 cup fire-roasted diced tomatoes (from a 15 oz can)
1/4 cup water
Large pinch of kosher salt
1 tbsp. sugar
1 tbsp. apple cider vinegar

Cheeseburger tacos:

1 lb. ground beef (I used 85 percent lean)
Salt, to taste
4 oz. shredded mild cheddar cheese (note: the original recipe called for 1 lb. grated Chihuahua cheese; I divided the amount of cheese in half and substituted cheddar and muenster)
4 oz. shredded muenster cheese
12 flour or corn tortillas (I used flour)
3/4 cup mayonnaise
Bread and butter sweet pickles
1/2 medium sweet onion, diced
Fresh guacamole
1/2 cup coarsely chopped cilantro leaves


Make the salsa:

1. Heat a medium skillet over medium heat. Add the chiles and toast for about a minute. Transfer chilies to a bowl, cover with hot tap water and soak for 30 minutes. Drain chiles and chop into smaller pieces. Set aside.

2. Add the oregano and cumin seeds to the hot skillet and toast until fragrant, about 15 to 30 seconds. Remove from the pan, transfer to a spice grinder and grind into a fine powder.

3. Add the garlic cloves to the hot skillet and toast in the pan until browned in places, about 6 minutes. Remove the garlic and allow to cool, then peel the garlic cloves.

4. Combine the drained chiles, ground spices, garlic, tomatoes, water, salt, sugar and vinegar in a food processor. Puree until the mixture is smooth (note: the original recipe calls for straining the mixture with a fine-mesh sieve, but I kept it chunky). Transfer to a container and store in the refrigerator until ready to use (the salsa will keep for up to 3 days).

Make the tacos:

1. Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add the beef and cook until browned, breaking up with a wooden spoon as the meat cooks, about 10 minutes. Season with salt, to taste. Add the shredded cheese and stir until the cheese is combined with the meat and melted, about 3 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat.

2. Warm the tortillas and divide among 4 plates.

3. Assemble the tacos: spread1 tbsp. of mayonnaise on each tortilla, then divide the meat-cheese mixture evenly among each tortilla. Top with a generous spoonful of salsa roja, a few slices of sweet pickles, a sprinkle of diced onion, a spoonful of guacamole and a few cilantro leaves.

Mashed Pea and Bacon Tacos
Adapted from Mashed Pea Tacos with Parmesan Cheese from Tacos by Alex Stupak and Jordana Rothmans

Note: I adapted this recipe by adding bacon and omitting freshly squeeze lime juice as a garnish.

Makes 6 tacos

2 dried pasilla chiles, split open with stems and seeds removed
4 oz. hickory-smoked thick-sliced bacon (note: this is not in the original recipe)
12 oz. shelled English peas
1/2 cup grated parmigiano-reggiano (parmesan) cheese, plus more for serving (note: I used pre-grated parmesan for mixing with the peas and a block of parmesan I grated with a microplane for finishing the tacos)
2 tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
Pinch of kosher salt
6 corn tortillas
18 pea tendrils or 1 cup of pea shoots (the original recipe calls for pea tendrils, but I used pea shoots, since that's what I could find)

1. Heat a medium skillet over medium heat. Add the chiles and toast, turning occasionally, until fragrant, about 30 seconds to 1 minute. Transfer chilies to a bowl, cover with hot tap water and soak for 30 minutes. Drain chiles and chop into smaller pieces. Set aside.

2. Add the bacon to the skillet and cook, turning the bacon occasionally, until the bacon is cooked through. Transfer the bacon to a paper-towel-lined plate to cool. Break the bacon into 1-inch pieces.

3. Heat about 3 inches of water to boil in a medium saucepan. Add peas and cook for about 2 minutes. Drain peas and set aside.

4. Add the chiles, peas and 1/2 cup of grated parmesan, olive oil and kosher salt to a food processor. Process until the mixture forms a smooth puree (add 1 or 2 tbsp. of water if needed to smooth it out).

5. Warm the flour tortillas and divide between two plates. Place a few tablespoons of pea puree on each taco and a handful of bacon crumbles. Top with a small handful of pea tendrils or shoots and a sprinkle of freshly grated parmesan.

Related:

Dining Notes from New York, January 2016 (includes my review of Empellón Taqueria)

Smoked Cashew Salsa (a recipe from Empellón Cocina)

Spicy Pistachio Guacamole (a recipe inspired by the guacamole served at Empellón Cocina)

Holy Smoke! It's Mezcal! By John McEvoy

For a long time, ask me what my favorite spirit was and I'd say "gin." But sometime last year, the answer changed to "mezcal." I'm not the only one who's coming around to Mexico's oldest spirit.

I've been interested in mezcal for some time, but it was my ongoing love affair with New York's mezcal-focused bar Mayahuel that really convinced me that mezcal was something special. Since then, I've broadened my exposure to this spirit significantly. I've tried different mezcals from the Del Maguey line. I've learned more about it from blogs, bartenders and liquor stores. But it was reading John McEvoy's Holy Smoke! It's Mezcal! where I really started to feel like I was getting educated. McEvoy, author of the blog Mezcal PhD, has written a well-researched and approachable book on this interesting spirit.

Reading Holy Smoke! gave me a much deeper appreciation for how much variation there is in mezcal and how uniquely tied the spirit is to its source ingredients and terrroir--that is the environmental factors of its production. McEvoy also does a particularly nice job of exploring the history of the rise of tequila's popularity, contrasting that with the (until recently) comparatively slower growth in popularity of mezcal. He even discusses the regulatory differences between the two spirits and the impact of their attainment of Mexican regulatory status--known as the "Norma Oficial Mexicana (NOM)"--and international regulatory status--the "Appellation of Origin," which he refers to as being akin to a "Denomination of Origin (DO)." McEvoy credits these certifications as helping to legitimize these spirits in the international market, which in turn helped spur their burgeoning export market. Tequila got its international status in 1978, while mezcal didn't receive it's DO until much later in 1995. Hence, tequila has had a good head start on mezcal, and the latter has a lot of catching up to do.

Critically, mezcal has had to overcome its unfortunate and undeserved reputation. A lot of people think of mezcal as "the bad tequila with a worm in it," which is so so far from the truth. Mezcal isn't tequila at all, rather, tequila is a form of mezcal that's made only with blue weber agave and produced in certain regions of Mexico--primarily Jalisco--as specified in the DO. As tequila has become more popular with time, its production has become quite industrialized to meet that demand. Mezcal, on the other hand, may be made from any of 50 varieties of agave plants (espadin is the most common), is typically made by small-scale producers and is usually produced through more traditional methods, including roasting the agave hearts, known as piñas, in outdoor earthen ovens. This imparts mezcal's signature smoky flavor (tequila, in contrast, is typically pressure-cooked, hence, no smoke). Most mezcals, particularly the better ones, don't come with worms (the widely available brand that does is Monte Alban, which isn't considered a particularly good mezcal by McEvoy, although I'll confess I've never tried it). Much of this information is covered in great depth in the book's opening chapters on the characteristics, history and production of mezcal.

My current selection of mezcal at home. No worms in sight!

The latter part of the book changes focus from making mezcal to drinking it. The important part! There's a chapter on hosting a mezcal tasting, a rundown of all the major brands available in the United States (an updated version appears on McEvoy's website, although the book has more detail about each bottle), and a wonderfully long list of mezcal cocktails. McEvoy acknowledges that some so-called "purists" snub using mezcal in cocktails, but I'm glad that he doesn't feel that way, as I think mezcal cocktails are brilliant. McEvoy did a nice job selecting a mix of drinks that includes some simpler and more complicated cocktails and a few that call specifically for aged mezcal. Many of the drinks call for lime and agave, making them similar to margaritas, but mezcal goes nicely with other flavors too, such as herbal liqueurs like Chartreuse. I've shared the recipes for a few of the drinks I made from the book below (check back on Friday for a list of other cocktails I like to make with mezcal).

While it's becoming easier to find mezcal, selection is still often limited at most liquor stores. During an informal scan of six liquor stores near my home, I found their stock of mezcal ranged from none to a surprisingly good selection (for mezcal, at least) of 10 choices at Magruder's in Chevy Chase. Also promising was that Del Maguey Vida, a very decent entry-priced mezcal that's great in cocktails, was the most commonly available option, although it ranged in price from $35 to $42. You may be surprised that I consider that "entry-level" pricing, but mezcal does not come cheap, with many bottles priced in the $50-$100 range. The only one I've ever seen for less is Monte Alban mezcal, which is the one most everyone, including McEvoy, agrees is not very good. All of these liquor stores have many more times the variety of tequila and in a wider range of prices (at Calvert-Woodley, for example, you can pay as little as $15 for a fifth of "mixto" tequila or as much as $350 for a special aged añejo, whereas mezcal runs $26 to $43). I've been particularly impressed by the selection of mezcals at Eye Street Cellars, which includes quite of few bottles from the Del Maguey line I love so much.

McEvoy and others are doing their part to educate consumers about mezcal, but its sales in the U.S. are still quite small compared to tequila, despite making significant inroads in recent years. According to Fortune magazine, mezcal exports about doubled from 2011 to 2014, rising from 647,989 liters to almost 1.2 million liters. But that's still less than 1 percent of tequila exports, which surpassed 172 million liters in 2014. Yet, if mezcal were to be produced on a scale as large as tequila, it might lose its distinctiveness. Much of its uniqueness comes from the fact that it's produced in smaller quantities by smaller operations employing less industrialized methods. There's also the issue of sustainability, as agave plants take years to mature. Were mezcal production to ramp up dramatically, that crop would have to be very carefully managed. McEvoy's clear appreciations for mezcal comes through as he discusses these issues. And if you devour this book like I did (preferably with a glass of mezcal or a cocktail at your side), I hope you have a growing appreciation for this amazing spirit too.

Selected Cocktails

Below are three drinks I made from the book, all of which are of the "medium" difficulty I would say. If you're going to rim the glass with salt or sugar do that first. Pour the salt or sugar onto a small plate. Moisten the rim of the glass using a cut piece of lime then roll the outer part of the rim through the salt until you have a nice even coating. Lime and lemon juice should also be acquired from fresh fruit. Bottled juices just don't cut it, especially those fake-tasting ones in the plastic containers shaped like citrus fruits.

Sweet Lips
Adapted from a recipe by John McEvoy for Holy Smoke! It's Mezcal!

This drink is seriously spicy. Serrano peppers may be small, but they pack a powerful punch. The two little muddled slices I used for this cocktail gave it a very strong kick. Be warned if you don't like a spicy drink, but if you do, this cocktail is awesome. I love the vanilla with the mezcal. I was attracted to this drink because I had some vanilla syrup on hand, and this was the perfect way to use some of it up.

1-2 slices serrano chile pepper (careful, these are really hot)
1 oz. lemon juice
2 oz. joven mezcal (I used Del Maguey Vida)
1/2 oz. vanilla simple syrup (see note)
1/4 oz. agave nectar
Demerara sugar rim (may use regular sugar too)

Add serrano slices and lemon to a cocktail shaker and muddle. Add the mezcal, vanilla syrup and agave nectar, then fill the shaker with ice. Shake until very cold, then double-strain into a sugar-rimmed rocks glass with ice (see note).

Notes: to make the syrup, combine 1/2 cup sugar (I used demerara sugar), 1/2 cup water in a medium saucepan. Split a vanilla bean down the middle and scrape the seeds into the pan (add the bean pod too). Bring mixture to a boil, stir to ensure sugar dissolves then remove from heat. Allow to cool, then transfer to a container and store in the fridge. To "double-strain" a drink means to use both a typical Hawthorne cocktail strainer in the shaker and a fine-mesh sieve held just above the glass to catch any seeds or little bits from the muddled pepper.

Under the Volcano
Adapted from a recipe from the former restaurant, Los Americanos in New York City

Although this has a chile pepper too, it's far milder than the Sweet Lips drink, although that may depend somewhat on how potent your jalapeño is, since they can range from no hotter than a green bell pepper to oh-my-god-my-mouth-is-on-fire hot. This is a good example of how herbal flavors play well with mezcal.

1 1/2 oz. mezcal joven (I used Marca Negra Espadín)
1 oz. jalapeño-rosemary syrup (see note that follows)
3/4 oz. lime juice
2 dashes bitters (I used Bittermens Xocolatl mole bitters, always a good choice with mezcal, although the recipe in the book calls for teapot bitters)
Salt rim (optional, I omitted this--the book calls for sal con guano, which is salt wth ground up dried worms)

Combine mezcal, jalapeño-rosemary syrup, lime juice and bitters in a cocktail shaker with ice. Shake until very cold, then strain into a rocks glass filled with ice.

Note: to make the syrup, combine 1/2 cup sugar, 1/2 cup water, two jalapeños split and quartered and the leaves from a 4-inch sprig of rosemary in a medium saucepan. Bring to boil over high heat, then set aside to cool. Pour all of the mixture into a container and let it sit in the fridge overnight. Strain after 24 hours (you may leave the jalapeño in longer for more heat). Store in the fridge and use within a week.

Mom's Mezcal Margarita
Adapted from a recipe by John McEvoy for Holy Smoke! It's Mezcal!

I really liked this drink a lot and not just because I thought it was sweet that McEvoy said his mom enjoys mezcal margaritas this way. I've had plenty of mezcal margaritas, but I'd never seen one with brandy before. And the Peychaud's bitters give a lovely light pink color.

2 oz. joven mezcal (I used Del Maguey Vida)
1/2 oz. brandy (I used Laird's Applejack, an apple brandy)
2 oz. lime juice
1 oz. agave nectar
3 dashes Peychaud's bitters (these are red, which makes the drink a nice pink color)
Salt on the rim (optional)
Lime wedge garnish (optional)

Combine the mezcal, brandy, lime juice, agave nectar and bitters in a cocktail shaker with ice. Shake until very cold, then strain into a rocks glass with ice. If you prefer, rim the glass with salt before pouring the drink and garnish with a lime wedge.

The NoMad Cocktail Book by Leo Robitschek

Bohemia Cocktail

Hiding your bar continues to be "the thing" in cool cocktail bar circles. The practice is a revival of the speakeasy, the 1920s-era bar that had to be kept from the eyes of law enforcement because of prohibition. Obviously today that's not necessary, yet many cocktail bars have gone underground (a la Pepe le Moko or 2 Birds, 1 Stone) or camouflaged their appearance (a la Garage, tucked inside in parking garage) in a nod to that era.

The NoMad Bar in New York City, which I wrote about a couple weeks ago, is not a speakeasy. It's easily accessible from the hotel and the street. Perhaps because of this, The NoMad's owners had a bit of fun when it came time to publish a book of the bar's recipes: they hid it the book in the back cover of the NoMad restaurant's cookbook. Thus, if you want to get a copy of Leo Robitschek's The NoMad Cocktail Book--and I assure you that you do--you'll have to spring for The NoMad Cookbook as well, as they are not sold separately. If cost is an issue, get the much less expensive e-book version, which also contains the cocktail book.

Reading the book has given me a better appreciation for the bar. An introduction by David Wondrich, author of the wonderful cocktail history book Imbibe!, refers to Broadway between 23rd and 34th Streets as the "cocktail route," an area that in the late 19th and early 20th centuries was known for its bustling hotel cocktail bars and saloons. That era ended with prohibition, which changed the nature of the neighborhood into something quieter. But that has changed in recent years, as restaurants and bars have returned to this corner of Manhattan.

The NoMad Hotel is located right in the middle of the "cocktail route" on the corner of 28th and Broadway. The story of how this hotel came to have one of the city's finest cocktail bars begins at Eleven Madison Park, the four-star sister-restaurant of The NoMad where NoMad Bar director Leo Robitschek was working when he was asked to transform that restaurant's bar into something extraordinary. Leo recounts how he came to find himself in this position, a former investment banker who left Wall Street to work the bar and became captivated with the art of finely crated cocktails, a course that started with the Gin-Gin Mule, a refreshing gin, citrus and mint concoction that you'll find in the book's "classics" section. Later, still weighing whether to pursue a career in medicine, the Eleven Madison Park partners offered him the opportunity to establish The NoMad Hotel's bar and Robitschek gave up the stethoscope for the jigger for good.

After the informative opening that details the history of the bar and Robitschek's personal background, the book launches into the section common to many cocktail books that covers ingredients, equipment and techniques. If, like me, you have a lot of cocktail books, these sections can seem extraneous, but The NoMad Cocktail Book has a particularly good discussion on garnishes, and I'm considering getting some Cocktail Kingdom dasher bottles after reading the book's description of how they can improve consistent measurement of bitters (it has always bothered me that a "dash" is a rather inconsistent form of measurement).

Recipes in the book are divided into five groups: apéritifs, which are lighter cocktails; light-spirited (i.e. gin, vodka and the like); dark-spirited (i.e rum, whiskey and the like); classics--ones you may have heard of and quite a few you probably haven't; and "soft" cocktails (non-alcoholic).

The ingredients for each cocktail are listed twice: first, they are listed generically with the most prominent listed first (i.e. Chambray Blanc in the Bohemia cocktail); second, they are listed specifically by brand and amount (i.e. 1 oz. Dolin Blanc vermouth in the Bohemia). Each drink is then rated with 1-to-3 scales to help you get a sense of each drink in terms of being refreshing, spirituous (i.e. strong), venturesome, bitter and citrusy. The creator of most of the cocktails is also named. Robitschek appears frequently, but so do the names of his NoMad coworkers--Jessica Gonzalez, in particular, is the creator of many of the book's most appealing drinks (Gonzalez is a veteran of one of my other favorite New York cocktail bars, Death & Co).

Browsing through the book, I found lots of cocktails that interested me. Quite a few recipes call for house-made syrups and infusions, a practice that Robitschek pegs back to his transformative days at Eleven Madison Park when the bar realized that the restaurant's pastry chefs could help whip up house-made ingredients that were better than what they were previously buying. Lavender-infused honey, for example, shows up in the Bee Lavender, a mixture of Scotch, Cocchi Americano and lemon inspired by the smoky and floral flavors of Eleven Madison's Park's roasted duck.

Brown Sugar cocktail

One of the first cocktails that caught my eye in the dark-spirited section was the Brown Sugar, a drink I remembered from the menu when we visited the bar but that we didn't try. It's a split-base cocktail made from rye whiskey and rum with sherry, Cynar (an artichoke-based amaro) and mole bitters. Aptly named, the strong but sweet drink really does remind you of brown sugar. From the light-spirited section, I tried the Bohemia (pictured at top), a refreshing genever-based drink with aquavit, blanc vermouth and a touch of maraschino liqueur (an ingredient you have to be careful since, since it can easily overpower a cocktail). Unfortunately, our favorite drink from our recent visit to the bar--Always Betz on Black--is not included in the book, but I am hopeful that I will eventually discover its recipe, as I would love to recreate it at home.

From the classics menu, I made the Bijou, which I really liked a lot. It's a wonderful blend of gin, sweet vermouth and green Chartreuse that's super smooth. Although Robitschek doesn't get into the history of the drink, I looked it up in Imbibe! The Bijou dates back to the late 19th Century and is credited to Harry Johnson, a bartender who worked in New York and Chicago and is known for his 1882 Bartender's Manual (an alternative version with Grand Marnier instead of Chartreuse is credited to Chris Lawlor). Most recipes I've seen for the Bijou employ a 1-to-1-to-1 ratio for the drink's three key ingredients, but The NoMad ups the gin and reduces the green Chartreuse--a smart move for balancing the drink. Supposed the cocktail is named Bijou--French for "jewel"--because its' ingredients represent three jewels: gin for diamonds, sweet vermouth for rubies, and Chartreuse for emeralds.

Ever since Death & Co's book came out, I've been a serious devotee of their drink recipes, but I'll definitely be spending more time now with the NoMad Cocktail Book, a work that represents serious attention to detail and thought with a wide range of tasty drink recipes perfect for all seasons.

Cocktail: Brown Sugar
Adapted from Leo Robitschek's recipe, The NoMad Cocktail Book

1 oz. dark rum (the book calls for Diplomático Reserva Exclusiva rum; I used Flor de Caña)
3/4 oz. Rittenhouse rye whiskey
3/4 oz. Cynar (I substituted a different Italian amaro, Averna)
3/4 oz. Lustau East India Solera cream sherry
1 dash Bittermens Xocolatl mole bitters

Combine all ingredients in a cocktail mixing glass with ice. Stir into very cold, then strain into a chilled cocktail glass. No garnish.

Bijou cocktail

Cocktail: Bijou
Adapted from The NoMad Cocktail Book, based on the original recipe by Harry Johnson

1 1/2 oz. Plymouth gin
1 oz. Carpano Antica sweet vermouth
3/4 oz. green Chartreuse
1 dash orange bitters
Lemon twist garnish

Combine gin, vermouth, Chartreuse and bitters in a cocktail mixing glass with ice. Stir until very cold, then strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with lemon twist.

Related

The NoMad Bar Review

The NoMad Restaurant Review

More Gift Ideas: Books about Food and Drink

More and more I read books on my Kindle or iPad, but I still buy cookbooks in paper form. There's just something to said about leafing through a cookbook or cocktail book--pausing to look at the photos, dog-earing the pages you want to return to--that's not replicated on an e-reader. Any of these eight books, would make an excellent gift for someone who loves to cook or make cocktails.

The Savoy Cocktail Book by Harry Craddock. Classic cocktails are back, and this is a classic among classics when it comes to cocktail recipe books. Harry Craddock, an American bartender who worked at London's Savoy Hotel, wrote this book first published in 1930, which is considered one of the best (if not the best) collections of prohibition-era cocktails. Given its age, there are many editions kicking around, some of which include a new section at the front with "new" cocktails that I don't really care for. Go for a facsimile of the original 1930 edition.

American Whiskey, Bourbon & Rye: A Guide to the Nation's Favorite Spirit by Clay Risen. I read that whiskey recently surpassed sales of vodka (in dollars, not volume) in the United States, fueled by a resurgence in popularity of bourbons and ryes, our homegrown “brown” spirits. For any American-whiskey lover, Risen’s guide is essential. The user-friendly format has full-color photos, tasting notes and price information for each whiskey, organized in alphabetical order by brand-name. The new 2015 edition includes 300 bottles, up 50 percent from the 200 in the 2013 version.

Tasty by John McQuaid. Pulitzer Prize-winner Maryland-based author John McQuaid published this fascinating look at how taste works earlier this year. A wonderful read for those who enjoy the scientific side of the eating experience.

The Cocktail Chronicles by Paul Clarke. This was my favorite new cocktail recipe book this year (which I reviewed in July), a wonderful look at the modern cocktail renaissance's love of classic and contemporary drinks.

Chesapeake Bay Cooking by John Shields. Regional cookbooks are a wonderful way to immerse yourself in recipes that are beloved because they represent the ingredients and traditions of a particular place. When it comes to honoring the Chesapeake Bay region, John Shields clearly knows his stuff. The chef of Baltimore's Gertrude's released the 25th anniversary edition of this book this year, a collection that, naturally, has a lot of seafood, but much more as well. Of course there are recipes for Maryland crab cakes, including variations, but have you heard of St. Mary's County Stuffed Ham? It's a southern Maryland tradition, and it appears in Shield's book as well.

Momofuku Milk Bar by Christina Tosi. This book came out in 2011, but I suspect is getting more attention in D.C. these days since pastry chef Christina Tosi and her Momofuku business partner/cherfDavid Chang opened their first D.C. restaurant and bakery, Momofuku CCDC and Milk Bar. Lines for Milk Bar have been rather long since it's opening last month, so skip the line and make your own crack pie and blueberry & cream cookies at home with this cookbook.

Lucky Peach Presents 101 Easy Asian Recipes by Peter Meehan and the editors of Lucky Peach. I've been a fan of Lucky Peach magazine for years. The publication was created by Momofuku restaurant titan David Chang and Peter Chang, the latter serving as its editor. The book does a good job adhering to its "easy" promise--the most difficult thing might be finding some of the ingredients, which aren't necessary staples of the mainstream grocery store (but worth seeking out).

Mi Comida Latina: Vibrant, Fresh, Simple, Authentic by Marcella Kriebel. I came across this gorgeous book at the downtown D.C. holiday arts fair this year. Kriebel, a D.C. local, assembled the recipes in this book from her notes traveling through Latin America. The book itself is entirely hand-written and illustrated by her, making it not just a wonderful collection of recipes, but a piece of art unto itself.

Related
Still need more ideas? Check out today's other holiday gift ideas story.

Book Review: The Cocktail Chronicles - By Paul Clarke

"It's just a damn drink," remarks author Paul Clarke near the beginning of his introduction to The Cocktail Chronicles: Navigating the Cocktail Renaissance with Jigger, Shaker & Glass. But, of course, it's so much more, as Clarke sets up how this "damn drink" has captured the attention of bartenders and drinkers all over the world. Whether you call it the "craft cocktail movement" or the "cocktail renaissance," it's the revolution in drinking that began in the mid 2000s (the decade) and continues to this day as cocktail aficionados (including me) rediscover old drinking traditions and the joy of fresh, quality ingredients applied alongside modern techniques and the ever-expanding availability of unique bottles. Indeed, it is an exciting time to imbibe.

Clarke's is the most hotly anticipated of this year's books about cocktails, the latest in a series of wonderful works charting recipes, techniques and traditions (see the "related links" below for some of my other recent favorites). He is the executive editor of Imbibe magazine, a bimonthly publication covering all things potable that I love subscribing to. In 2005 he started the blog The Cocktail Chronicles (where his book gets its name), which is still going 10 years later, although hasn't been updated much in recent years (because he was working on the book).

Manhattan cocktail (recipe below)

The book is grounded in the modern cocktail renaissance, but has a strong emphasis on how that contemporary movement is linked to historical cocktail eras spanning back to the late 19th century. Along with sharing a long list of great cocktail recipes, he tells the stories of these drinks and the bartenders behind them, stories that are both old and new, as well as connected. After an introductory chapter, The Cocktail Chronicles' recipes are divided into three chapters: classic recipes; contemporary recipes; and "muses & bridges," a shorter chapter on the most popular cocktails and their variations.

Twentieth Century cocktail (recipe below)

The book's cocktail entries are informative, charting the context and backstory of many of the drinks. Some of these segments are based on, but not identical to, posts from The Cocktail Chronicles blog. For example, Clarke's 2005 post on the classic Twentieth Century cocktail gets expanded context in the book as he charts how the 1930s-era drink inspired the recent Twenty-First Century and 30th Century Man cocktails by Jim Meehan (who wrote the book's foreword, as well as the popular PDT Cocktail Book) and Nathan Weber, respectively.

You might think everything has been said that needs to be about the Manhattan, but Clarke nicely posits the drink as a key bridge between spirit-dominated cocktails (like the Old Fashioned) and something softer like a Sherry Cobbler. He then goes on to provide recipes for 10 Manhattan variations, a mix of older ones like the Saratoga and newer ones from New York, Boston and San Francisco bartenders. The Manhattan is one of the "muses & bridges" cocktails, perhaps my favorite section of the book, where Clarke takes an in-depth look at the origins and variations of five prominent cocktails: the Manhattan, Martini, Negroni, Old Fashioned and Daiquiri. The Daiquiri more than any other drink deserves this excellent reminder that it is a refined classic and not a fruit slushie (Clarke includes eight Daiquiri variations without a strawberry or banana in sight).

The Graduate cocktail (recipe below)

A lot of the famed bars of the cocktail renaissance are in New York (PDT, Death & Co., Mayahuel, Booker & Dax, etc.), but Clarke launched his blog from Seattle, and Imbibe is headquartered in Portland. Hence, The Cocktail Chronicles' selection of newer drinks has a nice bi-coastal flavor. I found a couple of delicious examples from Portland bartenders, including the Ephemeral from Raven & Rose bartender David Shenaut, an Old Tom gin drink with floral notes of St. Germain and celery bitters, and The Graduate, a thoroughly satisfying combination of Scotch, sweet vermouth, orange curaçao and tonic from Teardrop Lounge bartender Daniel Shoemaker.

Unlike several other recent cocktail books, Clarke's recipes are written generically without specific ingredients, although he will often make suggestions either in the recipe itself or the accompanying text. I like this approach since I personally don't think cocktails need to be made so exact as require specific brands (there might be some exceptions though). In the recipes from the book below, I shared what I used to make the drinks.

The book concludes with the obligatory chapter on "bottles, tools & tips," which I found most useful for its bottles section, which Clarke packs with smart recommendations while managing to be quite concise. If you already own several of the good recent books on cocktails, the tools and tips will be familiar, but if not, Clarke covers the essentials well.

The Cocktail Chronicles would be a nice addition to any cocktail library. I would certainly include it in my recent rundown of good books for stocking your bar. Although the book lacks flashy photography, its content is solid and well organized. A cocktail book with good recipes is important, but getting the back story behind those recipes makes for an even more satisfying read. Whether you're just discovering the joy of the cocktail renaissance or are already steeped in its lore, The Cocktail Chronicles will entertain and inspire while filling your cocktail glass with not just a damn drink, but a damn fine one.


Twentieth Century
Clarke writes that "gin, lemon and chocolate is an unexpected combination, but somehow...it just works. Works? Hell, it sings.." I couldn't agree more. This is a nicely balanced drink. Its gin and citrus profile with other unusual ingredients reminds me of a Last Word. Recipe adapted from Paul Clarke's recipe in The Cocktail Chronicles, originally from the 1937 Café Royal Cocktail Book.

1 1/2 oz. gin (I used Fifty Pounds gin)
3/4 oz. lemon juice
3/4 oz. Lillet blanc (not having this, I substituted Dolin blanc)
3/4 oz. white crème de cacao liqueur
Lemon twist garnish

Combine gin, lemon juice, Lillet blanc and crème de cacao in a cocktail shaker with ice. Shake until very cold, then strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with the lemon twist.


Manhattan
Clarke shares that the original Manhattan had a 1:2 ratio of whiskey to sweet vermouth before settling into the more-whiskey version as we know it today. I usually employ a 3:1 whiskey-to-vermouth ratio when I make it with Bulleit rye whiskey, but his 2:1 is perfect for the higher-proof Rittenhouse rye. Recipe adapted from Paul Clarke's recipe in The Cocktail Chronicles.

2 oz. rye whiskey (I used Rittenhouse)
1 oz. sweet vermouth (I used Dolin)
2 dashes Angostura bitters
Cherry garnish (I used a maraschino cherry)

Combine whiskey, sweet vermouth and bitters in a cocktail mixing glass with ice. Stir until well chilled then strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with a cherry.

Ephemeral cocktail

Ephemeral
I was drawn to this drink because I have a bottle of Dolin blanc vermouth I want to use up before it goes bad. The drink's sweetness nicely mellows the bitter and floral flavors of the other ingredients. Recipe adapted from Paul Clarke's recipe in The Cocktail Chronicles, originally from David Shenaut of Raven & Rose in Portland, Ore.

1 1/2 Old Tom gin (I used Hayman's)
1 oz. blanc vermouth (I used Dolin)
2 tsp. elderflower liqueur (I used St. Germain)
3 dashes celery bitters (I actually used 2 dashes of Bittermens Orchard Street Celery Shrub)
Grapefruit twist garnish


The Graduate
I love the story behind this cocktail. During a visit to Teardrop Lounge, Clarke asked bartender Daniel Shoemaker to fashion an original drink from short list of ingredients. Thus, after a brief moment of "panic," the "brilliance" of The Graduate emerged--and I agree it is a brilliant drink. Recipe adapted from Paul Clarke's recipe in The Cocktail Chronicles, originally from Daniel Shoemaker of Teardrop Lounge in Portland, Ore.

1 oz. sweet vermouth (I used Dolin)
3/4 oz. blended Scotch whiskey (I used Johnny Walker Red)
1/2 oz. curaçao (I used Pierre Ferrand)
1/2 oz. tonic water (I used Fever Tree India)
Lemon twist garnish

Combine vermouth, whiskey and curaçao in a rocks glass with ice and stir to combine. Top with the tonic water, stir again and garnish with a lemon twist.


Related Links
Curious about other great recent cocktail books? Here are links to stories about some of my favorites.

The Bar Book - Jeffrey Morgenthaler

Bitters: A Spirited History of a Classic Cure-All, with Cocktails, Recipes, and Formulas by Brad Thomas Parsons

Death & Co: Modern Classic Cocktails - David Kaplan, Nick Faulchald and Alex Day

Savory Cocktails - Greg Henry

Stocking Your Bar - Books

Stocking Your Bar: Books

This is Part 3 in a series of three posts on stocking your home bar for 2015 Summer Cocktails Week. See Part 1 on Equipment and Glassware and Part 2 on Bottles.

I've covered barware and glassware and bottles. Those are the tools you need to make and serve cocktails, but you're not going to get very far without recipes and techniques. I've learned so much from my favorite cocktail books. I'm always cracking them open looking for a new recipe or an idea when I'm not sure what I want to make.

And don't discount history. Learning about the past of cocktails has helped me appreciate what makes a great drink. The story of how cocktails emerged in the 19th century and evolved through prohibition, the martini craze and today's craft cocktail movement is an engaging story that says a lot not just about what we've liked to drink but about ourselves and our relationship with drinking. It's no coincidence that in the '80s, a time when convenience foods proliferated, cocktail mixes were big or that today, when people are obsessed with ingredients that are local, organic and quality, that we have a craft cocktail movement that can mirror that obsession.

I've sorted these books into three categories; however, there is quite a lot of overlap here. Many of the books cover technique, for example, and all of them have recipes, but I've put them in the categories for which I think they offer the most value.

Books Great for Recipes

Death & Co: Modern Classic Cocktails by David Kaplan, Nick Faulchald and Alex Day. My favorite cocktail book at the moment, this is the companion book to the great Death & Co. cocktail bar in New York's East Village. Last year, I got this book (and wrote about it) and visited the bar (and wrote about that too), and I've been a major devotee to both ever since. The book is large and filled with amazing drinks, both classics and Death & Co. originals. If I decide I want a particular drink, I often look to see how they make it. I also just love thumbing through it to look for new recipes. I've made a lot of drinks from this book, and have loved every one.

The PDT Cocktail Book: The Complete Bartender's Guide from the Celebrated Speakeasy by Jim Meehan. This book is only 4 years old, but it feel like it's been out a decade, since it's been such a big influence for me and many other lovers of contemporary cocktails. This one is also attached to a New York bar, the PDT speakeasy. The recipes are alphabetized rather than categorized, which makes it really easy to find a drink if you know what you want to make. Short blurbs provide trivia, including information about the drinks' origin.

The Bartender's Bible: 1001 Mixed Drinks and Everything You Need to Know to Set Up Your Bar by Gary Regan. Regan, also known as "Gaz" is a beloved figure in the cocktail world. He's done a lot of things, but he's perhaps best known for creating Regan's Orange Bitters and publishing this book, which has the deepest list of recipes of any book on my shelf. This book was published in 1993, so it's a little older than the others (and predates the current cocktail craze), but it's useful for finding obscure recipes.

The Craft of the Cocktail by Dale DeGroff. This book doesn't have the most recipes (although at 500, it's nothing to sneeze at) or the most historical content, but it's just a solid all-around cocktail resource. If you're new to cocktails, I'd actually recommend this as a great place to start over most of these other more specialized works.

Books Great for Techniques/Ingredients

The Bar Book by Jeffrey Morgenthaler. A lot of cocktails books open with a section on equipment and techniques but provide mostly recipes. Portland-based bartender Jeffrey Morgenthaler flips that around with The Bar Book, which puts its emphasis on good and proper techniques for making cocktails. That may sound boring to some, but if you're reading this post I hope you find it as interesting as I did (I read it cover-to-cover actually). Along with Death & Co., Morgenthaler has been a major recent influence for me. I read his blog, reviewed this book last year and also visited the restaurant and his cocktail bar where he bartends (Clyde Common and Pepe Le Moko).

Liquid Intelligence by Dave Arnold. Arnold is the bartender at Booker & Dax, the Momofuku collective's bar New York Times calls a "high-tech cocktail lounge." It explores cocktail-making with a similar fresh approach that David Chang applies to his cooking. There's a lot of technique and science in this book, as well as some equipment I doubt any of you have or will acquire, but if you love reading about the science behind what makes great drinks great, this is a fun and informative read.

Craft Cocktails at Home by Kevin Liu. Liquid Intelligence is very interesting, but not always accessible. For that, I recommend Liu's book, which approaches innovative cocktail techniques with a fresh perspective, an open mind and (for the most part) equipment you may have at home or can easily get your hands on. I've had this book a couple years (I reviewed it in 2013), and still use it regularly, such as for making the orgeat I used in this week's Mai Tai. It also inspired my Garden Martini.

Savory Cocktails by Greg Henry. I love how this book came into my life. I read about it, wanted it, and then won it in an online giveaway. And it's fantastic, focussing on cocktails made with savory ingredients, a nice change of pace for drinks so often dominated by sweetness. Read my review from last year. I also enjoy reading his blog, Sippity Sup.

The Drunken Botanist: The Plants That Create the World's Great Drinks by Amy Stewart. I only recently acquired this book, which focuses on ingredients and their origins in drinks (so this could easily slip down to the history list below).

Books Great for History

Imbibe!: From Absinthe Cocktail to Whiskey Smash, a Salute in Stories and Drinks to "Professor" Jerry Thomas, Pioneer of the American Bar by David Wondrich. This book focuses on Jerry Thomas, a 19th Century bartender Pete Wells once called "the father of American mixology" for his pioneering work in developing and documenting the craft of cocktail-making, and through Thomas' story, charts the American origins of cocktails. If you want real "old-school" cocktail recipes, this is the best place to find them. Imbibe! was originally published in 2007, and an updated version was just released.

Bitters: A Spirited History of a Classic Cure-All, with Cocktails, Recipes, and Formulas by Brad Thomas Parsons. Parson's fantastic book was invaluable when I was writing my week-long series on cocktail bitters last year. Bitters and cocktail history are intricately linked, as detailed in this book, which explores the subject's history and contemporary revival.

Recipes from These Books

Oaxaca Old-Fashioned (Death & Co.)

Julius Orange (Death & Co.)

Naked and Famous (Death & Co.)

Wooden Ship (Death & Co.)

The Cloister (PDT)

Singapore Sling (PDT)

Fancy Gin Cocktail (Imbibe!)

Teagroni (Craft Cocktails at Home)

Bitter Boulevardier (Craft Cocktails at Home)

Spanish Coffee (The Bar Book)

Sidecar (The Bar Book)

Celery Shrub Cocktail (Savory Cocktails)

Scandi Gibson (Savory Cocktails)

Barrel-Aged Berlioni (Savory Cocktails)

Manhattan (Bitters)

Sazerac (Bitters)

Smoky Frozen Margarita (Liquid Intelligence)

Last Minute Gift Ideas for Food and Drink Lovers

A silicone baking mat, like this one by Silpat, provides a nonstick liner for baking.

Is there someone in your life that likes to cook, eat or make (and/or drink) cocktails? If you haven't found a good gift for them yet, here are some ideas, just in time for 2-day (or overnight) shipping or a quick (hopefully) trip to the mall.

Equipment 

Silpat silicone baking mat. Remember the days when you greased cookie sheets? Most home cooks have discovered parchment to line baking sheets, but, although easier than using Crisco, they require cutting and, if you buy parchment in rolls, you have to deal with them rolling up in your pan (my solution to that is to crinkle them up first). A silicone baking mat can make things even easier. They make cleanup a snap, don't roll up under your cookies and are reusable. The 11-5/8-Inch x 16-1/2-Inch size fits a standard half-sheet baking sheet. ($25, however frequently on sale--half off at Amazon as of this writing.)

Stainless steel citrus juice press. If you use lemons or limes a lot in cooking or cocktails a citrus squeezer is an invaluable tool for quickly and easier juicing those fruits. Their double-bowl design keeps the juice from squirting in your face and they are generally designed to trap larger sides (you still might need to strain out smaller ones). Although I've long used a painted one, I recommend getting a stainless steel model like the Norpro or Innovee, since the acid in citrus fruit can wear the paint off over time (and you don't want that in your food or drink).

Garlic Twist. I work with garlic a lot, often minced as an ingredient in a pasta sauce, pan sauce or spread for fish. For many years, I used a garlic press for this, but I was always unsatisfied with the fact that a significant portion of the garlic clove remained in the press and that you cannot control the size of the mince. Then I discovered the Garlic Twist, which is a vastly superior tool. First, it minces the entire garlic clove, second, you can control how fine the mince is by how many times you twist the device (by adding a little salt, you can get an even finer paste-like mince). 

The Arctic Chill cocktail muddler is a great replacement for a worn-out wooden muddler (and a better choice, in my opinion).

Arctic Chill Cocktail Muddler. Looking to replace a worn-out varnished wooden cocktail muddler? Consider this stainless steel and plastic muddler, which I recently reviewed (positively) on my site. It makes quick work of citrus, fruit and herbs for making drinks. Cocktail muddlers are also useful for other tasks (like mashing garlic and anchovies into a paste for salads).

ISI Cream Whipper. You know how fun it is to eat whipped cream out of the can? Well, with an ISI Cream Whipper you can enjoy homemade whipped cream anytime you want. The device is easy to use and clean, plus it has applications for experimental cocktail infusions.

Books

Mrs. Wheelbarrow's Practical Pantry: Recipes and Techniques for Year-Round Preserving by Cathy Barrow. In an age where you can always buy things like canned tomatoes and pickles, the art of preserving food is danger of being lost. This book by Barrow, a local D.C. author and Washington Post contributor, provides instructions and recipes for those wanting a better quality canned good or just the satisfaction of doing it yourself.

A Farm Dies Once a Year by Arlo Crawford. I picked this book up because it was written by the son of the man who runs the farmers market I visit most Saturday mornings during the summer and fall; however, I loved the book because it offers great insight into modern-day farm life (my very short review).

The Language of Food by Dan Jurafsky. It's not only what we eat that changes but also how we talk about food too. Jurafsky, a linguistics academic, explores this fascinating side to eating (my review).

Death & Co: Modern Classic Cocktails

Death & Co: Modern Classic Cocktails by David Kaplan, Nick Fauchald and Alex Day. This gorgeous book is a must-have for craft cocktail lovers. It's full of recipes, beautiful photos and tips on techniques and recipes (my review).

The Bar Book by Jeffrey Morgenthaler. Serious cocktail lovers will also love this book, which has a stronger focus on technique with excellent writing (my review).

The Tastemakers by David Sax. You may dismiss food trends as silly nonsense, but there's a reason your refrigerator probably has butter in it and not margarine (and probably the opposite 30 years ago). Like it or not, food trends shape what we eat at home and in restaurants, and Sax offers a fascinating look at them.

Delancey: A Man, a Woman, a Restaurant, a Marriage by Molly Wizenberg. For anyone who's ever wondered what it's like to open a restaurant (or who really likes pizza), this memoir is a delightful read about the all-consuming experience.

Subscriptions

There are a lot of wonderful food and drink magazines, which make great gifts. Your food lover may already subscribe to Bon Appétit or Food & Wine, but chances are they don't get Lucky Peach, a collaboration with Momofuku chef David Chang that mixes essays and recipes in a fresh, irreverent format. For the cocktail lover, consider a subscription to Imbibe, the quarterly that covers spirits, wine, beer and other (even nonalcoholic) drinks.

Death & Co: Modern Classic Cocktails

Oversize cookbooks with beautiful design and photographs have become commonplace. It isn't unusual to run into a stack of them in the "new books" section of the bookstore. But I don't see that as frequently among books about cocktails, which have tended to be more standard size.

So its size was the first surprise when I received my copy of Death & Co: Modern Classic Cocktails. This isn't a book for the shelf, but rather one that demands to be set out on the coffee table--or more appropriately the bar if you have one. Many cocktail aficionados will recognize the name Death & Co, a well-known and respected cocktail lounge in Manhattan's East Village. There, they craft drinks that aren't just interesting, but get noticed, like the Oaxaca Old-Fashioned, a drink created at Death & Co that migrated to its offshoot Mayahuel, another notable East Village bar, one that specializes in cocktails made with tequila and mezcal.

Despite its beautiful design, it's a not a case of style over substance. Good cocktail recipes are the focus of the book, comprising its second half and organized by spirit (gin, rum, tequila and mezcal, whiskey, etc.--but not vodka, they explain in the introduction that Death & Co has traditionally taken a "hard stance" against it), technique (juleps, swizzles, etc.) and lastly a few sections on variations of well-known drinks like the Sazerac and the Manhattan. A few classics kick off this section before diving into the original drinks which are identified by the Death & Co. bartender who created them, including Alex Day, one of the book's three authors who is a co-owner of Death & Co. (along with co-author David Kaplan) and a former bartender there (publisher Nick Fauchald is the third author).

The original drinks show a lot of creativity. I love the Julius Orange, a nostalgic boozy take on the classic frothy mall drink. And the Naked and Famous is a lot a fun: a fabulously smoky marriage between the Last Word and Paper Plane cocktails.

The first half of the book has a lot of the typical introductory fare for a cocktail book, but it is very well done. They provide thoughtful discussions about stocking your bar with good gin, rum, tequila and mezcal, whiskey (or whisky) and brandy (again, no vodka, obviously) and modifiers, mixers, etc. They also have a nice section on good bar equipment (one of the few mistakes I caught in the book was the mixed-up labelling of the paddle and Yarai style mixing glasses). There are also nice stories about a typical day at Death & Co, how to taste and evaluate spirits and an introduction by Kaplan about the bar's beginning. They even, thankfully, state that cloudy ice works just as well as fussy clear ice at chilling your drink (I'm seeing more sanity on this point lately, hurray).

If there is a cocktail lover in your life, I definitely suggest you consider this book as a gift this holiday season. It's a wonderfully organized, beautifully presented work that stands on a foundation of great knowledge and creativity. Still not convinced? Make a few of these cocktails below that come from the book. Each one is different, original and delicious.

Cocktail: Oaxaca Old-Fashioned

Adapted from a recipe by Phil Ward for Death & Co.

1 1/2 oz. reposado tequila

1/2 oz. mezcal

1 tsp. agave nectar

2 dashes Bittermens Xocolatl Mole Bitters (Note: The Death & Co. book calls for Anogustura bitters, but I've seen the recipe made with the mole bitters, which I think are a nice touch and in-line with the Oaxacan theme. According to Serious Eats, the bar used mole bitters but published the recipe in the New York Times in 2007 with Angostura bitters, since the former wasn't widely available at the time.)

Flamed orange twist

Combine tequila, mezcal, agave nectar and bitters in a cocktail mixing glass. Add ice and stir until well chilled. Strain into a chilled coupe and garnish with a flamed orange twist (see instructions in this post for flaming an orange twist).

Cocktail: Julius Orange
Adapted from a recipe by Brad Farran for Death & Co.

2 oz. Pierre Ferrand dry curaçao
1/2 oz. rum (the original recipe calls for Cruzan single-barrel rum; I used Mount Gay Extra Old Rum)
1 tsp. vanilla syrup (see note below)
1/2 oz. heavy cream
1/2 oz. fresh lemon juice
1 dash orange bitters
Freshly grated nutmeg

Combine ingredients in a shaker with three ice cubes and do a "short shake" (i.e. don't shake it very much--just enough to combine the ingredients). Strain into a rocks glass filled with crushed ice. Garnish with a few grates of fresh nutmeg and serve with a straw.

Note: To make vanilla syrup, split a vanilla bean in half lengthwise. Scrape the seeds into a saucepan and drop the split pod into the saucepan too. Add 1 cup water and 1 cup sugar bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 4 minutes. Allow to cool, strain out the vanilla pod and seeds (or leave in to infuse more flavor) and store in a container in the refrigerator.

Cocktail: Naked and Famous
Adapted from a recipe by Jaoquín Simó for Death & Co.

3/4 oz. mezcal
3/4 oz. Yellow Chartreuse
3/4 oz. Aperol
3/4 oz. Lime juice

Combine ingredients in a cocktail shaker with ice and shake until cold. Strain into a coupe glass. No Garnish.

Wooden Ship
Adapted from a recipe by Thomas Waugh for Death & Co.

1 oz. gin
1 oz. genever
1/2 oz. Grand Marnier
1/2 tsp. simple syrup
1 dash Fee Brothers whiskey barrel-aged bitters
Lemon twist garnish

Combine gin, genever, Grand Marnier, simple syrup and bitters in a cocktail mixing glass. Add ice and stir until well chilled. Strain into a chilled coupe. Garnish with lemon twist.

Related Stories

Winter/Holiday Drinks Week

Mayahuel Mezcal Cocktails

Cocktail: Last Word