The Lady's Own Cookery Book, and New Dinner-Table Directory;

Ten gallons of water, twelve pounds of loaf sugar, the whites of four eggs, well beaten; mix them together when cold, and set them on the fire: skim it as it boils. Add half a pound of bruised ginger, and boil the whole together for twenty minutes. Into a pint of the boiling liquor put an ounce of isinglass; when cold, add it to the rest, and put the whole, with two spoonfuls of yest, into a cask: next day, bung it down loosely. In ten days bottle it, and in a week it will be fit for use.

Ginger Beer. No. 5

One gallon of cold water, one pound of lump sugar, two ounces of bruised ginger, the rind of two large lemons; let these simmer ten minutes. Put in an ounce of cream of tartar the moment it boils, and immediately take it off the fire, stirring it well, and let it stand till cold. Afterwards add the lemon-juice, straining out the pips and pulp, and put it into bottles, tying down the corks fast with string. This will be fit for use in three days.

Imperial. No. 1

The juice of two large lemons, rather more than an equal quantity of white wine, and an immoderate proportion of sugar, put into a deep round dish. Boil some cream or good milk, and put it into a tea-pot; pour it upon the wine, and the higher you hold the pot the better appearance your imperial will have.

Imperial. No. 2

Four or five quarts of boiling water poured to two ounces of cream of tartar, and the rinds of two lemons cut very thin, with half a pound of sugar. Well mix the whole together: and, when cold, add the juice of the two lemons.

Imperial. No. 3

Two ounces of cream of tartar, four ounces of sugar, six quarts of boiling water, poured upon it, the juice and peel of a lemon; to be kept close till cold.

Lemonade. No. 1

To two quarts of water take one dozen lemons; pare four or six of them very thin, add the juice to the water, and sweeten to your taste with double-refined sugar. Boil a quart of milk and put into it; cover and let it stand all night, and strain it through a jelly-bag till it runs clear. Leave the lemon-pips to go into the bag with the other ingredients.

Lemonade. No. 2

The peel of five lemons and two Seville oranges pared very thin, so that none of the white is left with it; put them in a basin, with eight ounces of sugar and a quart of boiling water. Let it stand all night, and in the morning squeeze the juice to the peels, and pick out the seeds; then put to it a quarter of a pint of white wine; stir all well together; add half a pint of boiling milk, and pour it on, holding it up high. Let it stand half an hour without touching it; then run it through a jelly-bag.

Lemonade. No. 3

Three quarts of spring water, the juice of seven lemons peeled very thin, the whites of four eggs well beaten, with as much loaf-sugar as you please: boil all together about half an hour with half the lemon-peel. Pour it through a jelly-bag till clear. The peel of one Seville orange gives it an agreeable colour.

Clarified Lemonade

Pare the rind of three lemons as thin as you can; put them into a jug, with the juice of six lemons, half a pound of sugar, half a pint of rich white wine, and a quart of boiling water. Let it stand all night. In the morning, add half a pint of boiling milk: then run it through a jelly-bag till quite clear.

Milk Lemonade

Squeeze the juice of six lemons and two Seville oranges into a pan, and pour over it a quart of boiling milk. Put into another pan the peel of two lemons and one Seville orange, with a pound of sugar; add a pint of boiling water; let it stand a sufficient time to dissolve the sugar; then mix it with the milk, and strain it through a fine jelly-bag. It should be made one day and strained off the next.

Transparent Lemonade

Take one pound and a half of pounded sugar of the finest quality, and the juice of six lemons and six oranges, over which pour two quarts of boiling water; let it stand twelve hours till cool. Pour on the liquor a quart of boiling milk, and let it stand till it curdles; then run it through a cotton jelly-bag till it is quite clear.

Lemon Water

Take twelve of the largest lemons; slice and put them into a quart of white wine. Add of cinnamon and galingale, one quarter of an ounce each, of red rose-leaves, borage and bugloss flowers, one handful each, and of yellow sanders one dram. Steep all these together twelve hours; then distil them gently in a glass still. Put into the glass vessel in which it drops three ounces of fine white sugar and one grain of ambergris.

Mead. No. 1

In six gallons of water dissolve fourteen pounds of honey; then add three or four eggs, with the whites; set it upon the fire, and let it boil half an hour. Put into it balm, sweet marjoram, and sweet briar, of each ten sprigs, half an ounce of cinnamon, the same of mace, twenty cloves, and half a race of ginger sliced very thin: let it boil a quarter of an hour; then take it off the fire, pour it into a tub, and let it remain till nearly cold. Take six ounces of syrup of citron, and one spoonful of ale yest; beat them well together, put it into the liquor, and let it stand till cold. Take a sufficient quantity of coarse bread to cover the barrel, and bake it very hard; then take as much ale yest as will spread it over thin, put it into the liquor, and let it stand till it comes to a head. Strain it out; put the liquor into a cask, and add to it a quart of the best Rhenish wine. When it has done working, stop it up close, and let it stand a month; then draw it out into bottles; tie the corks down close; and let them stand a month.

Mead. No. 2

Ten quarts of honey boiled one hour with thirty quarts of water; when cold, put it into a cask, and add to it one ounce of cinnamon, one of cloves, two of ginger, and two large nutmegs, to be pounded first, and suspended in a linen bag in the barrel from the bung-hole. The scum must be filtered through a flannel bag.

Mead. No. 3

Take eight gallons of spring water, twelve pounds of honey, four pounds of powdered sugar; boil them for an hour, keeping it well skimmed. Let it stand all night; the next day, put it into your vessel, keeping back the sediment; hang in your vessel two or three lemon-peels; then stop it up close; in the summer, bottle it in six weeks.

Mithridate Brandy

Take four gallons of brandy; infuse a bushel of poppies twenty-four hours; then strain it, and put two ounces of nutmegs, the same of liquorice, and of pepper and ginger, and one ounce each of cinnamon, aniseed, juniper-berries, cloves, fennel-seed, and cardamom seed, two drachms of saffron, two pounds of figs sliced, and one pound of the sun raisins stoned. All these must be put into an earthen pot, and set in the sun three weeks; then strain it, and mix with it two ounces of Venice treacle, two ounces of mithridate, and four pounds of sugar. This is an approved remedy for the gout in the stomach.

Nonpareil

Pare six lemons very thin, put the rinds and juice into two quarts of brandy; let it remain well corked four days. Set on the fire three quarts of spring water and two pounds of sugar, and clarify it with two whites of eggs; let it boil a quarter of an hour; take the scum off, and let it stand till cold. Put it to your brandy; add two quarts of white wine, and strain it through a flannel bag; fill the cask, and it will clarify itself. You may bottle it in a week. Orange-peel greatly improves this liquor.

Noyau

To one gallon of the best white French brandy, or spirit diluted to the strength of brandy, put two pounds and a half of bitter almonds blanched, two pounds of white sugar-candy, half an ounce of mace, and two large nutmegs. To give it a red colour, add four pounds of black cherries. It must be well shaken every day for a fortnight; then let it stand for six weeks, and bottle it off: it improves much by longer keeping.

Orange Juice

One pound of fine sugar to a pint of juice; run it through a jelly-bag, and boil it for a quarter of an hour; when cold, skim and bottle it.

Spirit of Oranges or Lemons

Take the thickest rinded oranges or lemons; pare off the rinds very thin; put into a glass bottle as many of these chips as it will hold, and then as much Malaga sack as it will hold besides. Stop the bottle down close, and, when you use it, take about half a spoonful in a glass of sack. It is a fine spirit to mix in sauces for puddings or other sweet dishes.

Cordial Orange Water

Take one dozen and a half of the highest coloured and thick-rinded oranges; slice them, and put them into two pints of Malaga sack, and one pint of the best brandy. Take cinnamon, nutmegs, ginger, cloves, and mace, of each one quarter of an ounce bruised, and of spearmint and balm one handful of each; put them into an ordinary still all night, pasted up with rye paste. The next day, draw them with a slow fire, and keep a wet cloth upon the neck of the still; put the loaf sugar into the glass in which it drops.

Orgeat

Two quarts of new milk, one ounce of sweet almonds and eighteen bitter, a large piece of cinnamon, and fine sugar to your taste. Boil these a quarter of an hour, and then strain. The almonds must be blanched, and then pounded fine with orange-flower water.

Another way

Four ounces of sweet almonds finely pounded, two ounces of white sugar-candy, dissolved in spring-water, and a quart of cream; mix all together. Put it into a bottle, and give it a gentle shake when going to be used.

Excellent Punch

Three pints of barley-water and a piece of lemon-peel; let it stand till cold; then add the juice of six lemons and about half a pint of the best brandy, and sweeten it to your taste, and put it in ice for four hours. Put into it a little champagne or Madeira.

Milk Punch

To twenty quarts of the best rum or brandy put the peels of thirty Seville oranges and thirty lemons, pared as thin as possible. Let them steep twelve hours. Strain the spirit from the rinds, and put to it thirty quarts of water, previously boiled and left to stand till cold. Take fifteen pounds of double-refined sugar, and boil it in a proper proportion of the water to a fine clear syrup. As soon as it boils up, have ready beat to a froth the whites of six or eight eggs, and the shells crumbled fine; mix them with the syrup; let them boil together, and, when a cap of scum rises to the top, take off the pot, and skim it perfectly clear. Then put it on again with some more of the beaten egg, and skim it again as before. Do the same with the remainder of the egg until it is quite free from dirt; let it stand to be cool. Strain it to the juice of the oranges and lemons; put it into a cask with the spirit; add a quart of new milk, made lukewarm; stir the whole well together, and bung up the cask. Let it stand till very fine, which will be in about a month or six weeks – but it is better to stand for six months – then bottle it. The cask should hold fifteen gallons. This punch will keep for many years.

Many persons think this punch made with brandy much finer than that with rum. The best time for making it is in March, when the fruit is in the highest perfection.

Another way

Take six quarts of good brandy, eight quarts of water, two pounds and a half of lump sugar, eighteen lemons, and one large wine-glassful of ratafia. Mix these well together; then throw in two quarts of boiling skimmed milk; stir it well, and let it stand half an hour; strain it through a very thick flannel bag till quite fine; then bottle it for use. Before you use this punch, soak for a night the rinds of eighteen lemons in some of the spirit; then take it out, and boil it in the milk, together with two large nutmegs sliced.

Norfolk Punch

Take four gallons of the best rum; pare a dozen lemons and a dozen oranges very thin; let the pulp of both steep in the rum twenty-four hours. Put twelve pounds of double-refined sugar into six gallons of water, with the whites of a dozen eggs beat to a froth; boil and scum it well; when cold, put it into the vessel with the rum, together with six quarts of orange-juice, and that of the dozen of lemons, and two quarts of new milk. Shake the vessel so as to mix it; stop it up very close, and let it stand two months before you bottle it.

This quantity makes twelve gallons of the Duke of Norfolk’s punch. It is best made in March, as the fruit is then in the greatest perfection.

Roman Punch

The juice of ten lemons, and of two sweet oranges, the peel of an orange cut very thin, and two pounds of powdered loaf-sugar, mixed together. Then take the white of ten eggs, beaten into froth. Pass the first mixture through a sieve, and then mix it by degrees, always beating with the froth of the eggs; put the whole into an ice-lead; let it freeze a little; then add to it two bottles of champagne, or rum. Turn it round with a ladle. The above is for twelve persons.

Raspberry Liqueur

Bruise some raspberries with the back of a spoon, strain them, and fill a bottle with the juice; stop it, but not very close. Add to a pound of fruit nearly a pound of sugar dissolved into a syrup. Let it stand four or five days; pour it from the fruit into a basin; add to it as much rich white wine as you think fit; bottle it, and in a month it will be fit to drink.

Raspberry Vinegar

Fill a jar with raspberries, gathered dry, and pour over them as much of the best white wine vinegar as will cover them. Let them remain for two or three days, stirring them frequently, to break them; strain the liquor through a sieve, and to every pint of it put a pound and a quarter of double-refined sugar; boil it, and take off the scum as it rises. When cool, bottle and cork it up for use. A spoonful of this liquor is sufficient for a small tumbler of water.

Ratafia Brandy

Apricot or peach kernels, with four ounces of fine sugar to a quart of brandy. If you cannot get apricot kernels, two ounces of bitter almonds, bruised a little, to the same quantity of spirit, will make good ratafia.

Shrub. No. 1

To a gallon of rum put three pints of orange-juice and one pound of sugar, dissolving the sugar in the juice. Then put all together in the cask. It will be fine and fit for use in a few weeks. If the rum be very strong, you may add another pint of juice and half a pound of sugar to the above.

Shrub. No. 2

Take two quarts of the juice of oranges and lemons, and dissolve in it four pounds and a half of sugar. Steep one-fourth part of the oranges and lemons in nine quarts of spirits for one night; after which mix the whole together; strain it off into a jug, which must be shaken two or three times a day for ten days; then let it stand to settle for a fortnight; after which draw it off very carefully, without disturbing the sediment.

Shrub. No. 3

One gallon of rum, one pound and two ounces of double-refined sugar, one quart of orange-juice, mixed and strained through a sieve.

Currant Shrub

Pick the currants from the stalks; bruise them in a marble mortar; run the juice through a flannel bag. Then take two quarts of the clear juice; dissolve in it one pound of double-refined sugar, and add one gallon of rum. Filter it through a flannel bag till quite fine.

Spruce Beer

For one quarter cask of thirty gallons take ten or twelve ounces of essence of spruce and two gallons of the best molasses; mix them well together in five or six gallons of warm water, till it leaves a froth; then pour it into the cask, and fill it up with more water. Add one pint of good yest or porter grounds; shake the cask well, and set it by for twenty-four hours to work. Stop it down close. Next day, draw it off into bottles, which should be closely corked and set by in a cool cellar for ten days, when it will be as fine spruce-beer as ever was drunk. The grounds will serve instead of yest for a second brewing.

In a hot climate, cold water should be used instead of warm.

Bittany Wine

Take six gallons of water and twelve pounds of sugar; put your sugar and water together. Let it boil two hours; then, after taking it off the fire, put in half a peck of sage, a peck and a half of bittany, and a small bunch of rosemary; cover, and let it remain till almost cold; then put six spoonfuls of ale yest; stir it well together, and let it stand two or three days, stirring two or three times each day. Then put it in your cask, adding a quarter of a pint of lemon-juice; when it has done working, bung it close, and, when fine, bottle it.

Sham Champagne

To every pound of ripe green gooseberries, when picked and bruised, put one quart of water; let it stand three days, stirring it twice every day. To every gallon of juice, when strained, put three pounds of the finest loaf sugar; put it into a barrel, and, to every twenty quarts of liquor add one quart of brandy and a little isinglass. Let it stand half a year; then bottle it. The brandy and isinglass must be put in six weeks before it is bottled.

Cherry Wine

Pound morella cherries with the kernels over-night, and set them in a cool place. Squeeze them through canvas, and to each quart of juice put one pound of powdered sugar, half an ounce of coarsely-pounded cinnamon, and half a quarter of an ounce of cloves. Let it stand about a fortnight in the sun, shaking it twice or three times every day.

Another way

Take twenty-four pounds of cherries, cleared from the stalks, and mash them in an earthen pan; then put the pulp into a flannel bag, and let them remain till the whole of the juice has drained from the pulp. Put a pound of loaf sugar into the pan which receives the juice, and let it remain until the sugar is dissolved. Bottle it, and, when it has done working, you may put into each bottle a small lump of sugar.

Cowslip Wine. No. 1

To twenty gallons of water, wine measure, put fifty pounds of lump sugar; boil it, and skim it till it is very clear; then put it into a tub to cool, and, when just warm, put to it two tea-spoonfuls of ale yest. Let it work for a short time; then put in fifteen pecks of cut cowslips, and the juice of twenty large lemons, likewise the outward rinds pared off as thin as possible. Keep it in the tub two or three days, stirring it twice each day. Then put it all together in a barrel, cleansed and dried. Continue to stir twice a day for a week or more, till it has done working; then stop it up close for three months, and bottle it off for use.

The cowslips should be gathered in one day, and the wine made as soon as possible after, as the fresh flowers make the wine of a finer colour than when they are withered; but they will not hurt by being kept for a few days if they are spread on a cloth, and moved every day.

Cowslip Wine. No. 2

To a gallon of water put three pounds of lump sugar; boil them together for an hour, skimming all the while. Pour it upon the cowslips, and, when milk warm, put into it a toast, with yest spread pretty thick upon it; let it stand all night, and then add two lemons and two Seville oranges to each gallon. Stir it well in a tub twice a day for two or three days; then turn it; stir it every day for a fortnight, and bung it up close. It will be fit for bottling in six weeks. To every gallon of water you must take a gallon of cowslips. They must be perfectly dry before they are used, and there should be as many gallons of cowslips as gallons of water; they should be measured as they are picked, and turned into the cask. Dissolve an ounce of isinglass, and put to it when cold. The lemons must be peeled.

Cowslip Wine. No. 3

Take fourteen gallons of water and twenty-four pounds of sugar; boil the water and sugar one hour; skim it till it is clear. Let it stand till nearly cold; then pour it on three bushels of picked cowslips, and put to it three or four spoonfuls of new yest; let it stand and work in your vessel till the next day; then put in the juice of thirty lemons and the peels of ten, pared thin. Stir them well together; bung up the vessel close for a month; then bottle it.

Currant Wine. No. 1

Gather the currants dry, without picking them from the stalks; break them with your hands, and strain them. To every quart of juice put two quarts of cold water, and four pounds of loaf sugar to the gallon. It must stand three days, before it is put into the vessel. Stir it every day, and skim it as long as any thing rises. To ten gallons of wine add one gallon of brandy, and one of raspberries, when you put it in the vessel. Let it stand a day or two before you stop it; give it air fourteen days after; and let it stand six weeks before you tap it.

Currant Wine. No. 2

To every gallon of ripe currants put a gallon of cold water. When well broken with the hands, let it stand twenty-four hours. Then squeeze the currants well out; measure your juice, and to every gallon put four pounds of lump sugar. When the sugar is well melted, put the wine into a cask, stirring it every day, till it has done hissing; then put into it a quart of brandy to every five gallons of wine; close it well up; bottle it in three months.

Currant Wine. No. 3

Put into a tub a bushel of red currants and a peck of white; squeeze them well, and let them drain through a sieve upon twenty-eight pounds of powdered sugar. When quite dissolved, put into the barrel, and add three pints of raspberries, and a little brandy.

Currant or Elder Wine

After pressing the fruit with the hand or otherwise, to every gallon of juice add two gallons of water that has been boiled and stood to be cold. To each gallon of this mixture put five pounds of Lisbon sugar. It may be fermented by putting into it a small piece of toasted bread rubbed over with good yest. When put into the cask, it should be left open till the fermentation has nearly subsided.

Black Currant Wine

Ten pounds of fruit to a gallon of water; let it stand two or three days. When pressed off, put to every gallon of liquor four pounds and a half of sugar.

Red Currant Wine

Gather the fruit dry; pick the leaves from it, and to every twenty-five pounds of currants put six quarts of water. Break the currants well, before the water is put to them; then let them stand twenty-four hours, and strain the liquor, to every quart of which put a pound of sugar and as many raspberries as you please.

Another way

Take twenty-four pounds of currants; bruise them, and add to that quantity three gallons of water. Let it stand two days, stirring it twice a day; then strain the liquor from the fruit; and to every quart of liquor put one pound of sugar. Let it stand three days, stirring it twice a day; then put it in your barrel, and put into it six-pennyworth of orris-root well bruised. The above quantities will make five gallons.

Red or White Currant Wine

Take to every gallon of juice one gallon of water, to every gallon of water three pounds and a half of the best Lisbon sugar. Squeeze the currants through a sieve; let the juice stand till the sugar is dissolved; dip a bit of brown paper in brimstone, and burn in the cask. Then tun the wine, and to every three gallons put a pint of brandy. When it has done hissing, stop it close; it will be fit to drink in six months, but it will be better for keeping ten or twelve.