The Whet Set

"All the Great villainies of history have been perpetrated by sober men, and chiefly by teetotalers. But all the charming and beautiful things, from the Song of Songs to terrapin a la Maryland, and from the nine Beethoven symphonies to the martini cocktail, have been given to humanity by men who, when the hour came, turned from well water to something with color to it, and more in it than mere oxygen and hydrogen."

This observation by H. L. Mencken, the departed sage of Baltimore, is a truth that should not be tampered with.

But another oft-quoted intellect, Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, zeroes in a little more on the matter at hand. A big epicurean type in France in his day, Brillat-Savarin's dicta on dining and drinking were considered infallible. "The order of drink," he said, "is from the mildest to the most heady and the most scented."

We seem to have turned this around, too often belting down the most heady in too-large portions in the wrong order, regardless of the time, money and effort the host has spent on spreading his dinner table. Therein lies our essay.

Something is obviously wrong socially when guests load up on hard liquor before sitting down to special dinner of boeuf à la mode, tender prime beef braised, then gently simmered in chamber-tin wine, a dish that has had to be prepared in three steps.

I know whereof I speak: I am referring to a dinner that I recently cooked for 12. Four of my guests sat and stared dully at the lovely beef in its sauce. They had brought their booze to the table with them. One woman nearly ate her napkin and her husband illustrated a conversational point he was making by dipping a finger in his glass of my ten-year-old burgundy and drawing a pink map on my fine white-linen tablecloth.

The fault was mine. I tilted the bottle too much before dinner. Now, I am heartily with those who like to relieve the tension of the inner man with a few drinks before sitting him down to dinner. But the accent should be on "few" and on the kind of drinks.

It is the physical faux pas to which I object: Bountiful booze, I learned the hard way, may give you a witty tongue, blissfully relax and float you to the ceiling, but it also dulls and virtually destroys the taste buds. As these are sensitive assets that aid us in enjoying fine food skill fully prepared, it doesn't make sense to deliberately deaden them before having a delightful meal. If you have taste buds that prefer five Scotches and poking aimlessly at a piece of Chicken Marengo the way Napoleon had it served, what follows isn't for you.

But a fast-growing segment of our society is turning from serving well water with meals when it entertains, and before dinner offering something with color to it, that interestingly contains more than mere oxygen and hydrogen. These are the Don't-serve-drinks-that-destroy-dinner folks who with imagination, finesse and flair at their parties are successfully putting down the-hell-with-the-taste-buds bashers.

A current party plan to keep from overextending physically and financially on booze is to mix interesting wines. For example, I was a guest recently where the host spent his money on excellent prime fillets of beef. Before dinner, he served nothing but a yellow wine that had everybody intrigued.

It "was Jura, a French wine no one had heard of, named for the region. Firm, strong, straw-colored, it comes from a grape I didn't know, the savagnin, and is kept in a cask for six years, where it picks up nutty character and flavor, somewhat as sherry does. With the beef, our host served plenty of silky young Beaujolais. That was a party. One person did fall on his face, but only because he missed a step going from the elevated dining room. Food and conversation were appreciated. True, dinner was expensive, but it would have cost the host more to lavishly entertain his guests from the hard-liquor bottle first, as is generously but mistakenly done too often.

Fun can be had planning such a party, choosing an unusual, dramatic wine for predinner drinking and a pert, pleasing one for the dinner palate. A little digging will turn up American wines with a flair at reasonable prices. For example, a California zinfandel, slightly spicy, tasting somewhat of raspberry, and a New York State vergennes, dry but with a nicely different taste of the grape, are dramatic mixes of red and white. The horizon is wide and exciting in wining, then dining experiments.

Perhaps the best of all wines as a before-dinner drink is champagne. Writer and epicure Alec Waugh pulls into focus this entire matter of drinking before dinner, describing his own favorite, the champagne cocktail. "It is pleasant to taste, it looks marvelous, it sparkles, it does not impair the palate and it is not very strong."

His recipe: a cube of sugar in the bottom of a thin, stemmed glass, a single drop of Angostura bitters on the sugar, about a teaspoon of brandy, a thin slice of peach, lemon or orange, then half fill the glass with cold champagne.

My favorite before-dinner drink (and one that can be drunk right through the meal, no matter what you are serving) is a good, very dry champagne. Its bubbles and acidity prevent gulping, and a glass and a half will take you through that dangerous drinking time. When I can afford it, I serve only champagne before dinner. It puts spark into any party.

A more offbeat idea that is catching on is to bring out the aperitif and aperitivo bottles as they do in Europe. The bottles are interesting in shape, color and label, and their contents are simple to serve. For example, Pernod, or pastis, popular in Europe, especially along the Riviera, is potent, almost colorless, slightly licorice-flavored. One part is added to four parts water. Ricard, slightly bitter, is served on the rocks with some water; bittersweet Byrrh and Amer Picon, on the rocks with perhaps a twist of lemon. Raphael and Dubonnet Blonde, one red, one white, are slightly sweet and poured over ice. Tart Punt E Mes is sometimes mixed with water or soda. Adventuring with aperitifs is also enlightening. I have discovered that people have their own ideas in mixing and drinking them. One guest blended one part Italian Cynar (a somewhat bitter aperitif made from artichokes) to eight parts beer. It was an interesting drink. Picon is often handled the same way.

Probably the most popular of the dinner-party pickups in Europe, where many of us learned what little we know of the aperitif approach, are the vermouth drinks.

Vermouth is largely misunderstood and underappreciated here. Taken with pleasure in Europe for many years, it is a drink with a double duty: Bouncy, despite the fact that it is only 18 percent alcohol, it also stimulates the appetite. Simply, vermouth is a white wine, either sweet or dry, slightly flavored with aromatic herbs and spices, the herb usually wormwood, a bitter extract also used in making absinthe. One of the most popular dry vermouths is the French Boissiere, Vermouth de Chambéry; the sweet one in favor is the Italian Martini & Rossi. The Italians also like to pour their "mellow" light and dark (both sweetish) Cinzano on the rocks with a twist of lemon.

Surprisingly, dedicated hard-booze boys often find vermouth drinks pleasing. I am among them. Not long ago, before I got the real message on this drink thing, my host told me that we were having sweetbreads on a bed of toast and ham, laved with a lemony hollandaise, and would I consider following his example and having a French Kiss rather than my usual belt of vodka. Intrigued, I went along. Sweetbreads (tipping the scales with gold these days) never tasted better, and I am becoming fond of the drink: It gives a definite glow that doesn't spring into a blaze.

[recipe_title]French Kiss[/recipe_title]

[drinkRecipe]2 ozs. dry vermouth[/drinkRecipe]

[drinkRecipe]2 ozs. Sweet vermouth[/drinkRecipe]

[drinkRecipe]Thin lemon peel[/drinkRecipe]

Pour vermouth over rocks in a stemmed glass; stir well; twist lemon peel into drink.

[recipe_title]Lillet Orange[/recipe_title]

Here is a unique vermouth, not overly sweet, with a delightful flavor found in no other drink. Another reward, other than saving the dinner and using the imagination rather than the bottle of bourbon, Scotch or gin, is that this drink is a conversation creator.

[drinkRecipe]3 ozs. chilled Lillet[/drinkRecipe]

[drinkRecipe]1 slice orange[/drinkRecipe]

Rub orange around lip of glass; add Lillet and orange slice; stir well. Lillet should be chilled but not served on the rocks, as it gets watery fast.

[recipe_title]Cassis Classics[/recipe_title]

A trio of civilized drinks becoming very popular are the cassis concoctions. vin blanc (white wine) cassis, vermouth cassis, champagne cassis. The vin blanc cassis is also bottled, called Kir, and is the name by which many know the drink. This was the favorite drink of Canon Felix Kir, a priest, who was also the mayor of Dijon, a Resistance hero and a member of the French Parliament. Kir was a man, it is said, who used his head rather than his elbow and became eminent largely because of his invention of this mild but very tasty drink.

This is a simple mixing of white wine, vermouth or champagne (usually a stale champagne) with crème de cassis, a sweet liqueur made from black currants.

4 ozs. dry white wine (or your choice)

1 oz. crème de cassis

Place ice cubes in a stemmed wineglass; pour in wine, then cassis; stir well. (A splash of soda may also be added.) Be careful not to overdo the cassis or the drink becomes too sweet.

Although the Italians like vermouth, they are more famous for another before-dinner drink, Campari; a bitter liqueur, used as a tongue-curling and appetite-building base for combinations of liquids. Here are the most popular.

[recipe_title]Campari and Soda[/recipe_title]

[drinkRecipe]l-1/2 ozs. Campari[/drinkRecipe]

[drinkRecipe]1 small bottle club soda[/drinkRecipe]

Fill a stemmed glass with ice; pour in Campari, then soda; stir well. Tonic may be substituted for soda.

[recipe_title]Americano[/recipe_title]

[drinkRecipe]1 oz. Campari[/drinkRecipe]

[drinkRecipe]2 ozs. sweet Italian vermouth[/drinkRecipe]

[drinkRecipe]Lemon peel[/drinkRecipe]

Fill a stemmed glass with ice; pour in Campari and vermouth; stir well; add twist of lemon peel.

[recipe_title]Spritzer[/recipe_title]

The Germans aren't exactly restrained with either food or drink, but here is a (concluded on page 258) The Whet Set (continued from page 140) simple drink I like that is sometimes offered when they entertain in the summer. It is a surprisingly tasty drink.

[drinkRecipe]3 ozs. Rhine wine[/drinkRecipe]

[drinkRecipe]1 small bottle club soda[/drinkRecipe]

Fill a tall glass with ice; pour in wine; fill with soda and stir.

Probably the greatest destroyer of all dinner gatherings is the dry martini, said to have been invented by Jerry Thomas, who wrote the Bon-Vivant's Companion.He whipped it up while tending bar at San Francisco's Occidental Hotel in 1861, creating it for a man on his way to Martinez, California, and originally called it the Martinez. Needless to say, the traveler never made it to Martinez. The trouble is all that eight-to-one business. Here are a couple that will keep guests from stumbling to the table and yet can be called martinis. Again, versatile vermouth comes to the rescue.

[recipe_title]Shy Martini[/recipe_title]

[drinkRecipe]1-1/2 ozs. dry sherry[/drinkRecipe]

[drinkRecipe]1 oz. dry vermouth[/drinkRecipe]

[drinkRecipe]Lemon peel[/drinkRecipe]

Simply pour over the rocks, stir vigorously, add lemon peel and serve.

[recipe_title]Reverse Martini[/recipe_title]

This is the drink many French chefs have when saving their steam for a good dinner. My friend Antoine Gilly. one of the four greatest living French chefs, taught me this one.

[drinkRecipe]3 ozs. dry vermouth[/drinkRecipe]

[drinkRecipe]1 teaspoon gin[/drinkRecipe]

Shake the vermouth with ice. Pour into stemmed glass over rocks. Add gin, carefully floating it on top. Add twist of lemon, if desired.

We don't lean completely upon Europe for our low-key libations. Americans have whipped up some pretty good combinations.

[recipe_title]Yacht Club[/recipe_title]

(Selves four)

This used to be called the Mary Pick-ford, but lately, boat people have substituted frozen lemonade for the fresh pineapple juice that once was used.

[drinkRecipe]6-oz. can frozen lemonade[/drinkRecipe]

[drinkRecipe]2 light dashes grenadine[/drinkRecipe]

[drinkRecipe]3 ozs. very light rum[/drinkRecipe]

Defrost lemonade and add 2 cans water, rather than the 4 that directions advise. Splash in the grenadine, add rum and shake well with cracked ice. Serve on the rocks.

[recipe_title]Tequila Teaser[/recipe_title]

(Serves four)

As most of us know, tequila is a very potent clear spirit distilled from a singular maguey plant grown only in Jalisco, Mexico. The trick is to go easy on this benign-looking liquor, have it make its personality known without clouting.

[drinkRecipe]Juice of 2 oranges[/drinkRecipe]

[drinkRecipe]Juice of a large red grapefruit[/drinkRecipe]

[drinkRecipe]Juice of 2 tangerines[/drinkRecipe]

[drinkRecipe]1 tablespoon Cointreau[/drinkRecipe]

[drinkRecipe]4 tablespoons tequila[/drinkRecipe]

Fill cocktail shaker 1/3, full of ice. Add fruit juices and Cointreau: shake well. Pour into 4 chilled glasses, 1/3 full. Add 1 tablespoon tequila to each serving; stir well.

Few drinks can match an American punch for ease in serving and elegance in offering. A punch puts the imagination to work, builds on camaraderie and cuts the work load for the host. Also, you can reduce the alcohol without sacrificing good taste. Punches are perfect for serving a big bunch and they are great levelers. Even your bourbon and Scotch men aren't going to be spoilsports when they see the others going at it with such enjoyment. Here's one I had last Christmas season, so good that I asked my host for the recipe. He called it:

[recipe_title]The Bunch Punch[/recipe_title]

(Serves about 30)

[drinkRecipe]1 fifth Southern Comfort[/drinkRecipe]

[drinkRecipe]1 6 ozs. fresh lemon juice[/drinkRecipe]

[drinkRecipe]1 6-oz. can frozen lemonade (undiluted)[/drinkRecipe]

[drinkRecipe]1 6-oz. can frozen orange juice (undiluted)[/drinkRecipe]

[drinkRecipe]3 quarts chilled 7-UP[/drinkRecipe]

[drinkRecipe]6 thin slices lemon[/drinkRecipe]

[drinkRecipe]6 thin slices orange[/drinkRecipe]

[drinkRecipe]Place all ingredients in punch bowl; add ice; stir well.[/drinkRecipe]

Here's one a good friend serves during the holidays. He whipped it up himself and he spends much of his party time telling people how lie did it.

[recipe_title]Apple Knocker[/recipe_title]

(Serves about ten)

[drinkRecipe]1 quart sweet cider[/drinkRecipe]

[drinkRecipe]1 pint applejack[/drinkRecipe]

[drinkRecipe]Cinnamon[/drinkRecipe]

[drinkRecipe]1/2 lemon, sliced thin[/drinkRecipe]

[drinkRecipe]Juice of other i/2 lemon[/drinkRecipe]

[drinkRecipe]1/2 of juice of 16-oz. jar crab apples[/drinkRecipe]

[drinkRecipe]1 orange, sliced in 3 or 4 thick slices Whole cloves[/drinkRecipe]

Blend and heat cider and applejack. Season to taste with cinnamon. Do not overdo cinnamon. Place mixture in punch bowl. Add lemon slices, lemon and crab-apple juices. Nail 4 or 5 cloves in each slice of orange, add to punch bowl; mix well.

So live it up, without lapping it up. Enjoy dinner on a plate rather than in a glass. You'll live better. And maybe longer.