A Titanic Cocktail +Giveaway by Maya Corrigan

 

The Titanic had its first full day at sea 109 years ago today, April 12, 1912. Two days later, it encountered an iceberg. Today I'm toasting the Titanic's heroes and victims and sharing a drink recipe inspired by the final dinner served on that ship. In my 5th Five-Ingredient Mystery, S’more Murders, my sleuth Val caters a re-creation of that dinner aboard a yacht...with fatal consequences. 

For the 110th anniversary of the disaster next year, a replica of the Titanic, currently being built, is slated for a memorial cruise, taking the same route as the original ship, but presumably not sinking. 

Would you go on a cruise commemorating that fateful crossing? Scroll down and comment for a chance to win a copy of S'more Murders. 

To write a book revolving around the final meal served on the Titanic, I researched what the passengers ate and drank on that ship. An original menu exists for the last meal the first class passengers ate. You can find that menu and a recipe that I shared for a dish on it in a previous blog post: Chicken Lyonnaise. 

One of the courses in that dinner was a palette cleanser, Punch Romaine, similar to a frozen champagne cocktail or an alcoholic granita. When S’more Murders came out, I was on Deborah Lacy’s Drinks with Reads blog, in which writers share a photo of a new book with a drink related to the book. Deborah recommends having a bartender prepare the drink for a better photo. I found a Punch Romaine recipe shortly before I was scheduled for a cruise to Bermuda. What better place to photograph and taste a Titanic specialty than on a ship in the Atlantic Ocean?

 
When I asked Mike, the mixologist on the Holland America Veendam, to make a cocktail served on the Titanic, he looked startled. Apparently, no one else had ever made such a request. Then he began humming the theme song of the blockbuster Titanic movie and continued to hum as he concocted the cocktail. The recipe that I gave him and am sharing here is adapted from one that appeared in Saveur a hundred years after the Titanic hit an iceberg.

PUNCH ROMAINE COCKTAIL

This recipe makes one large cocktail. It’s easy to multiply the ingredients to serve a crowd.

Ingredients

1 oz. white wine
1/2 oz. simple syrup (sugar water)
1/2 oz. lemon juice
1 oz. orange juice
1 oz. white rum (optional)
2 oz. Champagne or sparkling wine
Twist of orange peel, for garnish

Notice the wine labels 

To make simple syrup: In a large saucepan, heat equal parts sugar and water (2 tablespoons of each will more than suffice for this recipe). Stir until the sugar is dissolved. Bring the mixture to a boil and cook for a minute or until the syrup is clear. Remove it from the heat and cool it.

To mix the drink: Combine the white wine, simple syrup, juices, and rum in an ice-filled cocktail shaker. Shake the mixture and pour it over a mound of crushed ice in a coupe cocktail glass. Add the champagne and a twist of orange peel. 

I don't have photos of my making this cocktail at home. For the last year or so, I haven't gathered enough people at my house to justify opening a bottle of champagne. Also there hasn't been much to celebrate. The photo below shows Mike putting the final touches on the Titanic cocktail while we had smooth seas on the way to Bermuda. 

The book, the drink, and me

Maya Corrigan writes the Five-Ingredient Mysteries featuring café manger Val and her live-wire grandfather solving murders in a Chesapeake Bay town. Maya lives in a Virginia suburb of Washington, D.C. Before writing crime fiction, she taught American literature, writing, and detective fiction at Northern Virginia Community College and Georgetown University. When not reading and writing, she enjoys theater, travel, trivia, cooking, and crosswords.

Visit her website to sign up for her newsletter. One subscriber wins a book each time a newsletter goes out. Check out the easy recipes, mystery history and trivia, and a free culinary mystery story on the website.

S'more Murders

When Val caters a Titanic memorial dinner on a yacht in the Chesapeake Bay, long submerged grievances lead to murder.

A Titanic-obsessed yacht owner hires Val to re-create the final meal served on that doomed ship. On the anniversary of its sinking, the yachtsman welcomes his guests aboard and assigns them roles in a murder mystery game, "Death on the Titanic." Val soon reaches the chilling conclusion that the host is fishing for the culprit in a real crime. When someone goes overboard, Val has to reel in a killer before s’more murders go down. 

Would you go on a cruise that celebrates the Titanic's fateful crossing?

Comment for a chance to win a copy of S'more Murders (U.S. address) or cozy mystery swag including Titanic wine labels (outside the US).

PLEASE LEAVE YOUR E-MAIL ADDRESS SO I CAN CONTACT YOU IF YOU WIN!