Books and booze: working stiff and a corpse reviver

I find my self with no where to go and a little more time on my hands and I am bored... you too? Well then maybe you would like to join me for my new book and booze blog series. Once a week I will post my most recent read along with a classic cocktail, a little description of the book along with some cocktail history, why I paired them together. This is going to be a huge learning experience for me, along with the books I will also be doing some more fun creative photos and don't tell anyone but I haven't actually made many classic cocktails. I know a week isn't a very long time, but If you'd like to follow along I will post next weeks book at the end of this post and on my instagram.

For my first book, I read Working Stiff: Two Years, 262 Bodies, and the Making of a Medical Examiner by Judy Melinek  and T.J. Mitchell. This is the story of Dr. Judy Melinek and her journey from Surgery Resident to N.Y.C. Medical Examiner. It covers specific cases and interesting happenings, including the aftermath of the attacks on 9/11, during her two years of training in the New York City Medical Examiners office. I loved this book, it was brilliantly written and I couldn't put it down. I wouldn’t describe this as excessively gory, but if you don’t like dead bodies or parts of dead bodies this is probably not for you. 

If you weren’t put off already by my book choice then hopefully you’ll see why I had to go with the classic Corpse Reviver No., for obvious reasons. Why no.2? Well according to Meehan’s Bartender Manual a corpes reviver was originally any drink consumed after waking up with a hangover. The original No.2 variation comes from The 1930’s edition of The Savoy cocktail Book. Instead of making that recipe I have taken the note from Jim Meehan and swapped out the Tempus Fugit Kina L’Aero  d’Or, and I added a garnish for fun. If you'd like to make your own Corpse Reviver No.2 scroll down. And if you'd like to read along next weeks book will be Dashiell Hammett's The Thin Man.

Corpse Reviver #2
0.75 oz. Highclere Castle Gin
0.75 oz. Cointreau
0.75 oz. Lillet Blanc
0.75 oz. lemon juice
Emperor Norton Absinthe Dieu rinse
Garnish: dried orange slice

Combine all ingredients and shake until chilled and slightly diluted, strain and pour into an absinthe rinsed coupe.

​Cheers!