From the homonymous children's book of the Jerry Thomas Project in Rome, a manual to reinterpret the great classics of mixing in a modern way
Suffice it to say "those of Jerry" in Rome (but also Oltretevere) and everyone understands who it is. They are Leonardo Leuci, Roberto Artusio, Antonio Parlapiano and Alessandro Procoli: or the four of the Jerry Thomas Project, who have just published the book that will be the new sacred text of the bartenders: Twist on classic – The great Jerry Thomas Project cocktails (Giunti). Their friendship and professional collaboration began with a project on the rediscovery of mixing from the time of American pre-prohibition (1800-1920) to today, studying the evolution of the classics starting from The Bar-Tender's Guide, The bible of mixology, written by that very Jerry Thomas to whom they dedicated their efforts.
The next step, in 2010, was the opening of Italy's most famous speakeasy, which entered the World’s 50 Best Bars list five times. While waiting for the celebrations of the tenth anniversary, the four boys have ventured into their own text. In just over two hundred pages, they trace the history, theory and technique of mixing that over the years have studied and disseminated, forming many of the best bartenders in the capital and beyond. Disseminators born, therefore, who until now had not yet written down the results of their studies, made even more compelling by the splendid images of Alberto Blasetti, one of the best food & beverage photographers, who signs his first solo book with the Jerry guys.
There is no lack of the best Jerry Thomas recipes, which arise from the reinterpretation of a classic: they are all Twist on classic, as the title suggests. But how do you tweet a cocktail, as the bartenders say? The four boys explain it in a paragraph entitled Concept and theory of twist on classic – How to create original recipes starting from the classics: "The twist is a variation of the original recipe in which one ingredient is replaced by another, or a different (and often innovative) technique is used compared to the classic one". Everything, for the Jerry kids, is summed up with what they call "three-dimensional rule", that is, the twists can be horizontal, vertical or diagonal.
Horizontal Twist
It is the simplest solution: take the structure of the classic recipe and replace one or more elements with others that follow a consistency: distillate by distillate, sweetener for sweetener, acidifier for acidifier and so on. It will seem a little courageous choice, but surely it is the one that distorts the balance of the original recipe less, that if you have had luck there will be a reason.
Vertical Twist
"It consists in adding, to a previously defined recipe, an ingredient whose composition does not fall into any of the types of ingredients contained". It is the loose splinter that is added to give sparkle to the composition, but beware of the risk of imbalance, so much so that often the vertical twists are also horizontal, because it may be necessary to modify some other element to rebalance the compound.
Diagonal Twist
This is the slightly more complex one to understand, so we must rely on the words of the book: «It occurs when an ingredient of the basic recipe is replaced by another of a different type but which pursues the same purpose as the original ingredient (alcoholic sweetener in place of non-alcoholic sweetener, solutions and acid preparations instead of citrus juice etc.) . An example? Try making a Whiskey Sour by replacing the sugar syrup with a sweet liqueur.
The images of the photo gallery are by Alberto Blasetti.
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