Spirits and Cocktails of Upstate New York by Donald Cazentre

Author:Donald Cazentre
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing Inc.
Published: 2017-05-12T04:00:00+00:00

Tom & Jerry serving bowl and mugs at the Crystal Restaurant, Watertown. Author’s photo.

In Imbibe!, David Wondrich dismisses the claim. He cites references to the Tom & Jerry drink that appeared long before 1847, including one in a Salem, Massachusetts newspaper from 1827, two or three years before Thomas was born.

At the Crystal, Libby Dephtereos said she’d heard in recent years that a famous bartender named Jerry Thomas might have created the drink long ago, but she had no idea until she was interviewed for this book that he was from the Watertown area.

It seems coincidental, then, that the Tom & Jerry enjoys such a strong reputation so near his birthplace. For Dephtereos, it doesn’t matter. “It’s just such a great tradition,” she said. “We get so many people who come in during the holidays, some from far away, and greet their old friends over a Tom & Jerry or two.”

Whether he invented it or not, the Tom & Jerry appears in the first edition of Thomas’s cocktail book, How to Mix Drinks. Here’s his recipe, adapted and annotated for modern tastes by David Wondrich in Imbibe!

Tom & Jerry

From How to Mix Drinks by Jerry Thomas, Adapted by David Wondrich

Note: Thomas’s measurements appear first

(Wondrich’s adaptation in parentheses)

12 eggs

1½ teaspoons ground cinnamon

½ teaspoon ground cloves

½ teaspoon ground allspice

½ small glass (1 ounce) Jamaica rum

5 pounds (2 pounds) sugar

Use a punch bowl for the mixture: Beat the whites of the eggs to a stiff froth and the yolks until they are as thin as water; mix together and add the spice and rum. Thicken with sugar until the mixture attains the consistence of a light batter. (In his recipe, Thomas notes that “a teaspoonful of cream of tartar, or about as much carbonate of soda as you can get on a dime, will prevent the sugar from settling to the bottom of the mixture.”)

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