Mix drinks like a pro with this indispensable handbook, the most thorough -- and thoroughly accessible -- bartending guide ever created for both professional and home use. Learn how to stock and equip your bar, mix over a thousand drinks, and tell the stories that go with them.

Now you can with this indispensable handbook, the most thorough'and thoroughly accessible'bartending guide ever created for both professional and home use. Encyclopedic in scope and filled with clear, simple instructions, The Bartender's Bible includes information on:

• Stocking and equipping a bar'from liquors and mixers to condiments, garnishes, and equipment
• Shot-by-shot recipes for over 1,000 cocktails and mixed drinks from bourbon to rum to whiskey
• Wine drinks
• Beer drinks
• Nonalcoholic drinks
• Special category drinks'tropical, classics, aperitifs, cordials, hot drinks, and party punches
• Anecdotes and histories of favorite potables
• And more!

If you've ever wondered whether to shake or stir a proper Martini, or what to do with those dusty bottles of flavored liqueurs, The Bartender's Bible is the only book you need!

A bartender, as a rule, is a person who enjoys the company of others, endeavors to solve problems, listens to the woes of the world, sympathizes with the mistreated, laughs with the comedians, cheers up the down at heart, and generally controls the atmosphere at his or her bar. A bartender is the manager of moods, the master of mixology.

Certain scenarios are played out over and over again in bars everywhere. The questions are basically the same; only the details vary: What's in a true Singapore Sling? How long has the Martini been around? What's the difference between a Fix and a Fizz? A reference book is as necessary to a bartender as ice.

-- from The Bartender's Bible

I have heard only two explanations for the name of this drink. One is that it was named after Mary 1 of England, a sixteenthcentury queen who was nicknamed Bloody Mary because of the number of people that she had put to death. It is quite certain that nobody drank vodka and tomato juice before Mary got her epithet, so 1 prefer this explanation to the one that gives credit to the character in the 1949 musical South Pacific who was designated bloody because her teeth were stained red from chewing betel nuts.

Of course, given the way English royalty used to have people killed, it is somewhat surprising that we don't have a whole lineage of drinks named Bloody Ethelred, Bloody Henry, Bloody Richard, and Bloody Harold. I imagine that the Brits only gave the title to Mary because such behavior was unbecoming to a female.

As to who first concocted the Bloody Mary, well, many different people have taken credit, but it is usually credited to a bartender at Harry's New York Bar in Paris during the 1920s. His name was Fernand Petiot.

You may want to make a batch of Bloody Marys if you are throwing a brunch or a breakfast party. If so, make the tomato juice mixture without the vodka. That way the mix won't separate, and nondrinkers can help themselves to Virgin Marys.

Variations on the Bloody Mary include the Bloody Bull (above), Bloody Maria (page 141), and Clamato Cocktail (page 163).

In a shaker half-filled with ice cubes, combine the vodka, tomato juice, lemon juice, pepper, salt, celery seed, Worcestershire, and Tabasco. Shake well. Strain into a highball glass almost filled with ice cubes. Garnish with the celery and the lime wedge.