If you follow my Instagram or Facebook page (and why not?), maybe you remember this picture I posted a while back:

https://www.instagram.com/p/BCrbCIqLqB5/?taken-by=shannondwells

Or this one (it’s hiding at the back):

https://www.instagram.com/p/BCqwy49LqLR/?taken-by=shannondwells
This gem of a history/art/recipe book happened to catch my eye at the library in the New Releases section, and I picked it up on a whim. Best decision ever (well, as far as library decisions go).

The author of Lost Recipes of Prohibition, Notes from a Bootlegger’s Manual, is a trained museum curator and historian, and he brings that sensibility into the book. He was given the bootlegger’s manual by a friend, and so the book is an exploration of that and much more.

[bctt tweet=”Ever wanted to make your own Gin? This book will tell you everything you need to know!”]

He goes into the history of the recipes and formulas as he shares, and some incredibly in depth information about how Prohibition came about, as well as how people got around it. Ever wanted to make your own Gin? There’s a recipe for that.
One of my favorite parts though, is the actual manual itself and the additional original ads, clippings and what Pinterest refers to as “ephemera.” Full images from the original manual appear throughout the book and really inspired me visually.

If you enjoy history, recipes, old books or the Prohibition era, first off we should be friends, and secondly, you should look this one up. It’s a fun, engaging look at an amazing time in our country. Any other Prohibition cocktail books I’m missing out on?