“_Life isn’t all beer and skittles—but beer and
skittles, or something better of the same sort, must
form a good part of every Englishman’s education._”—TOM
HUGHES.
_TO make Ale Cup._—Digest for a few hours (preferably for a few days)
a quarter of an ounce each of cinnamon and allspice and a couple of
cloves in a tea-cupful of sherry, and strain through muslin. Add to
this infusion four bottles of ginger beer and a quart of ale. Cool on
ice, and serve in tankards.
_To make Badminton._—Mix in a jug, placed on ice, a bottle of
soda-water, a bottle of claret, a glass of sherry, a glass of
maraschino, the peel and juice of a lemon, a table-spoonful of castor
sugar, and a sprig of borage.
_To make Bishop._—Stick four Seville oranges with cloves, and roast
them brown before the fire. Place the oranges in a covered earthenware
vessel before the fire, together with half a pound of castor sugar,
a quarter of an ounce of mixed ginger, nutmeg, and cinnamon, and
half a pint each of water and of claret. Let it stand for a few
hours—preferably for twenty-four hours. Then squeeze the oranges, and
strain. Warm the mixture and add a boiling mixture of half a pint of
claret and a quarter of a pint of port.
“_Fine oranges,
Well roasted, with sugar and wine in a cup,
They’ll make a sweet Bishop when gentlefolks sup._”
_To make Boston Cooler._—Place in a tumbler a bottle of sarsaparilla, a
bottle of ginger ale, the rind of a lemon thinly sliced, and a few bits
of ice.
The best way to break a piece of ice into smaller pieces is to use
a large needle and strike it with a hammer; or it may be crushed by
wrapping it in a napkin or other cloth and hitting it with a mallet.
_To make a Brandy Cocktail._—Fill a tumbler with chipped ice, and pour
thereon three drops of Boker’s or angostura bitters, six drops of
syrup, and half a wine-glassful of brandy. Stir for a minute, and then
strain into a wine-glass containing either a small piece of lemon-peel
or a few drops of curaçoa.
_To make Champagne Cobbler._—Half fill a large tumbler with shaved ice,
add the juice of half a lemon and a tea-spoonful of soda, and fill
up with champagne. Dash a little claret over the top. This should be
served with straws.
_To make Champagne Cup._—Mix in a jug, placed on ice, a bottle of
champagne, two bottles of soda-water, a liqueur-glassful of brandy,
a liqueur-glassful of curaçoa or maraschino, two table-spoonfuls of
sugar, a thin slice of cucumber (which remove before serving), a pound
of ice, and a sprig of verbena.
_To make Cider Cup._—Proceed as with champagne cup, replacing the
champagne by cider, and using only one bottle of soda-water.
_Simple Claret Cup._—Extract the “zest” or essential oil from the
peel of a lemon by rubbing four lumps of sugar upon it. Pare another
lemon as thinly as you can. Put the paring and the sugar into a large
jug, and pour in a quart of claret. Mix all well together, and set the
jug on ice for one hour. Just before serving add a pint of sparkling
moselle and two bottles of soda-water. Put a few sprigs of borage or of
balm into the jug.—_J. R._
_To make Coffee._—Purchase whole, and preferably unroasted, berries of
good quality from a reliable source. Roast freshly as required, grind
as soon as roasted, and make as soon as ground. Some admirably simple
coffee-roasters are now obtainable. In the absence of a proper roaster,
a frying-pan may be used, a few berries being roasted at a time. A
very little butter should be placed in the pan, a low fire should be
employed, and the berries should be kept on the move till they are of a
light brown colour. It should be remembered that a single burnt berry
will spoil the coffee. Coffee should be most carefully strained, and
therefore some form of coffee-pot with percolator is desirable. Pack
the freshly ground coffee tightly in the strainer, and slowly pour
boiling water on it. As soon as the coffee has percolated through, it
should be served. Boiling it drives off the aroma. A table-spoonful of
ground coffee should be allowed to each _café noir_ cup, or each large
cup of _café au lait_. _Café au lait_ consists of an equal mixture of
coffee and boiled milk.
_To make Crambambuli._—Boil half a pound of sugar in a quart of ale.
Beat six eggs with half a pint of cold ale. Add the boiling ale, and
serve.
_To make an Egg-and-Brandy Mixture._—Beat up the yolks of two eggs.
Thoroughly mix with a tea-cupful each of brandy and cinnamon water.
_To make Egg Flip._ (From “Oxford Night-Caps.”)—Egg posset, _alias_ egg
flip, otherwise, in college language, rum booze. Beat up well the yolks
of eight eggs with refined sugar pulverized, and a nutmeg grated; then
extract the juice from the rind of a lemon by rubbing loaf sugar upon
it, and put the sugar, with a piece of cinnamon and a quart of strong
home-brewed beer, into a saucepan, place it on the fire, and when it
boils take it off, then add a single glass of gin, or this may be left
out, put the liquor into a spouted jug, and pour it gradually among the
yolks of eggs, etc. All must be kept well stirred with a spoon while
the liquor is being poured in. If it be not sweet enough, add loaf
sugar.
_To make Egg Nog._—Well beat the yolks of six eggs, and mix them with
half a pound of castor sugar, stirring till the sugar is dissolved. Add
this to a mixture of a pint of brandy, a pint of rum, and three pints
of milk, stirring the while. Pour over the whole the well-beaten whites
of six eggs, and lastly grate a little nutmeg over all. Having been
cooled over ice, this should be served in small tumblers. If hot egg
nog is desired, use hot milk.
[Illustration: A SIMPLE COFFEE ROASTER]
_Fruit Drink._—Mash one pint of strawberries, raspberries, currants, or
mulberries in a pint of water, into which the juice of two lemons has
been squeezed. Add a little sifted sugar. Strain through a hair sieve.
If not sufficiently liquid, add some iced water or half a bottle of
soda-water.—_J. R._
_To make John Collin’s Gin Sling, or Gin Fizz._—Mix in a tumbler the
juice of half a lemon, a small tea-spoonful of castor sugar, and a
wine-glassful of Hollands or of Old Tom gin. Stir for two minutes, then
add a few pieces of ice and a bottle of soda-water.
_To make La Masubal, or Lamb’s Wool._—Roast half a dozen apples, having
previously cored them. Boil a small piece of crushed ginger, a quarter
of a nutmeg grated, and two or three ounces of sugar in a quart of
strong ale. Add the pulp of the roasted apples, and serve hot.
_Lemonade._—To make one quart of lemonade allow six ripe lemons, or
eight if they are not juicy. Take four good-sized lumps of sugar and
rub the outside of the lemons well with them, in order to extract the
“zest” of the rind. Pick out every pip, and squeeze every drop of juice
the lemons will yield into a jug. Then add the four lumps of sugar,
and pour in nearly a quart of boiling water. Cover the jug till the
lemonade is cold. It is an improvement to set the lemonade on ice, but
do not put any pieces of ice into it.—_J. R._
_The Long Drink._—Take a large soda-water tumbler, and bruise into it
twelve or more strawberries, or any fruit which will yield not less
than a table-spoonful of juice. Add a table-spoonful of cream, and fill
up with soda-water.—_J. R._
_To make Mint Julep._—Place four or five sprigs of mint in a tumbler,
together with a table-spoonful of castor sugar and two table-spoonfuls
of water. Stir for two minutes, then add a wine-glassful of brandy,
and fill up the tumbler with shaved ice. The lip of the tumbler may be
rubbed with a piece of fresh pine-apple.
“_Behold this cordial Julep here
That foams and dances in his crystal bounds,
With spirits of balm and fragrant spices mix’d._”
[Illustration: BEER WARMER OR MULLER.]
_To make Mulled Ale._—Boil a quart of ale with a table-spoonful of
sugar, a tea-spoonful of crushed ginger, and two or three cloves. Beat
up eight eggs in a quarter of a pint of cold ale, and place in a large
jug. Pour the boiling ale on this mixture, and then pour the resultant
to and from another jug for some minutes in such a way as to froth the
mixture fully.
_Mulled Claret._—Put half a pint of claret into a saucepan with a
little water, six or eight cloves, and a piece of cinnamon. Make it
boiling hot. Grate a little nutmeg and a little ground ginger very
finely into a jug, pour the claret in, and add a lump of sugar which
has been well rubbed on the rind of a lemon.—_J. R._
_To make Hot Milk Punch._—Dissolve half a pound of sugar in a quart of
boiling milk. Add half a bottle of brandy and a quarter of a bottle
of rum, grating a little nutmeg over the surface, and adding the thin
outer rind and juice of four lemons.
_To make Milk Punch for Bottling._—Place the thin outer peel and the
juice of three Seville oranges and three lemons, with half a nutmeg
grated, in a bottle with a pint of brandy, and leave it to stand for
a few days. Then add a quart of brandy, a pint of rum, a pound of
sugar, and three pints of water. Add a quart of boiling milk, and stir
thoroughly. Let the mixture stand for twenty-four hours, and then
strain through muslin, and bottle.
_To make Hot English Punch._—Rub twelve or more lumps of sugar over the
rind of four lemons until the yellow part has been removed. Throw the
sugar into the jug or bowl, and make up the weight of sugar to a pound.
Add the juice of the lemons and two quarts of boiling water, and stir
for five minutes. Then add a bottle of brandy and half a bottle of rum.
_To make Cold Punch._—Proceed as with hot punch, but replacing the
boiling water by cold water and a few pieces of ice. The punch itself
is better not cooled over ice before serving.
_To make Cold Gin Punch._—Rub a few lumps of sugar over the outer peel
of a lemon, and place this, with the juice of the lemon, in a jug or
bowl, together with enough sugar to make up to three ounces. Add half
a pint of gin, a wine-glassful of maraschino, a pint of water, and two
bottles of iced soda-water.
_To make Purl._—Beat three eggs to a froth, and well mix them with two
ounces of castor sugar and a gill of ale. Heat a quart of ale with a
tea-spoonful of powdered nutmeg and a table-spoonful of crushed ginger.
Slowly add the hot ale to the ale-and-eggs mixture. Lastly, add a
wine-glassful of gin or brandy.
“_For the rest, both the tap and the parlour of the Six Jolly
Fellowship Porters gave upon the river, and had red curtains matching
the noses of the regular customers, and were provided with comfortable
fireside utensils, like models of sugar-loaf hats, made in that shape
that they might, with their pointed ends, seek out for themselves
glowing nooks in the depths, where they mulled your ale, or heated for
you those delectable drinks—purls, flip, and dog’s nose. The first of
these humming compounds was a specialty of The Porters, which, through
an inscription on its door-posts, gently appealed to your feelings as
‘The Early Purl House.’_”
_To make Raspberry Vinegar._—Pour two quarts of best vinegar over one
quart of raspberries picked from their stalks but not mashed. Leave
them for twenty-four hours. Next day put the vinegar and fruit on the
fire till it just boils, and then squeeze it through a cloth. Add two
pounds of sugar, and let all simmer for ten minutes. This quantity
makes six bottles. A gill of raspberry vinegar mixed into a tumbler of
seltzer water makes a most refreshing drink.—_J. R._
_To make Raspberry Vinegar (another recipe)._—Take a quart of
raspberries and place them in a jar. Cover them with a pint of vinegar.
In three days pour off the vinegar, and replace the raspberries by a
fresh lot, again pouring the vinegar over them. In three days pour
off the vinegar again, strain it, add a pound of sugar, boil for five
minutes, skim it, and bottle it.
_To make Saratoga Cobbler._—Half fill a tumbler with shaved ice,
and place therewith a liqueur-glassful each of brandy, whisky, and
vermouth, and four drops of angostura bitters. Mix thoroughly, strain,
and add a slice of lemon.
_To make Shandy Gaff._—Pour into a tumbler coincidently equal
quantities of beer and ginger beer.
_To make Sherbet._—Dry separately a pound of fine castor sugar, half a
pound of carbonate of soda, and half a pound of tartaric acid. Add to
the sugar a large tea-spoonful of essence of lemon, then add the acid
and soda, and well mix. The sherbet should at once be securely bottled,
as the least damp destroys its virtue.
_To make Sherry Cobbler._—Half fill a tumbler with shaved ice. Add two
wine-glassfuls of sherry and a table-spoonful of castor sugar. Stir.
This should be served with straws.
_To make a Syllabub._—Place in a large basin half a pint of sherry and
three ounces of castor sugar. Dissolve the sugar, and then add to the
mixture a pint of warm milk slowly poured from a height so as to make a
froth.
_To make Tewahdiddle._—“This is a right gossip’s cup, that far exceeds
all the ale that ever Mother Bunch made in her lifetime.” To half a
pint of beer add a dessert-spoonful of brandy, half a tea-spoonful of
brown sugar, a slice of lemon and some nutmeg grated. It may be drunk
cold, or the beer may be heated before mixing.
_To make a bowl of Wassail._—“_At night to sup, and then to cards, and
last of all, to have a flaggon of ale and apples, drunk out of a wood
cup, as a Christmas draught, which made all merry._” Boil a quarter of
an ounce each of bruised ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, and a couple each
of cloves, corianders, and cardamoms in three-quarters of a tumblerful
of water for ten minutes. Add a quart of ale, a bottle of sherry, and
from half a pound to a pound of sugar. Heat, but do not get too near
the boiling-point. Then beat the yolks of six eggs and the whites of
three eggs, and throw them into the bowl. Slowly add half the heated
ale and wine, stirring all the while. Bring the remainder to the boil
and pour it also in the bowl. Lastly, throw into the bowl six roasted
apples which had been cored and stuffed with sugar and think of Puck’s
confession—
“Sometimes lurk I in a gossip’s bowl,
In very likeness of a roasted crab,
And, when she drinks, against her lips I bob,
And in her wither’d dewlaps pour the ale!”