Erlanger, Baba and Daren Pierce. The Compleat Martini Cook Book. Illus. Elizabeth Fraser. New York: Random Thoughts, 1957.
My mother barely drinks at all, and while my father does, it’s in a decidedly unglamorous cans-of-bud-lite and jugs-or-sometimes-even-boxes-of-red-wine kind of way. Either because, or perhaps in spite of my upbringing, I’ve always liked the idea of serious, yet controlled, drinking, the kind done by ad men and literary types in movies from the 1950s and 60s. Hence my fondness for the The Compleat Martini Cook Book. Clearly a farce (the authors report being “shoved” from their “Newport nest” at the tender age of 34), the book nonetheless includes some fairly edible-seeming recipes, arranged in order of how many martinis should be drunk before attempting to cook them. The instructions take into account the sobriety of the chef, suggesting, sensibly, that knives should probably be avoided after four or five drinks. I chose the recipe below because it includes pickled beets (yum!) and because I LOVE the illustration. I think it perfectly captures that green, yet languid, state that can be reached after a night of hard drinking:
In keeping with the book’s boozy, breezy tone, the authors made a few mistakes. But such funny mistakes! I have to admit, I’ve never been so charmed by errata. They forgot to list peas as an ingredient in “Mrs. Joseph Erlanger Peas Wild or Tame;” they left a spoon sitting in the “Cartier Chowder;” and they forgot to list the tuna in the “Tuna Princess.” The mistakes sound suspiciously like mistakes a tipsy cook would make, and the skeptic in me wonders if the errata were more a joke than honest omissions. Either way, they made me laugh:
Baba Erlanger (real name: Jane Trahey) and Daren Pierce went on to one more glorious collaboration: Son of the Martini Cookbook, which I will write about another day.