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Lemonade

A historical recipe from The Cook and Housekeeper's Complete and Universal Dictionary, by Eaton, Mary, active 1823-1849 (1822).

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A historical recipe

The Cook and Housekeeper's Complete and Universal Dictionary; Including a System of Modern Cookery, in all Its Various Branches, Adapted to the Use of Private Families, by Eaton, Mary, active 1823-1849 (1822). Project Gutenberg eBook #29084.

From an old book: a historical recipe, not current advice. Its methods, additives and storage may be unsafe by today's standards.

Ingredients 5 ingredients

  1. three quarts of hot water
  2. three quarts of boiling milk
  3. three pints of water
  4. an ounce of citric
  5. a pint of clarified syrup

Cook safely

Keep children and pets away from the hob and the oven, and keep oven gloves and a lid within reach.

  • Boiling water and steam. Turn pan handles inward, away from the edge of the hob. Lift lids away from you, and pour hot water away from your body: steam burns too.
  • Sharp knives. Cut on a board that doesn't slip (a damp cloth under it helps), and curl the fingers of the hand that holds the food.

Method

  1. To prepare lemonade a day before it is wanted for use, pare two dozen lemons as thin as possible.
  2. Put eight of the rinds into three quarts of hot water, not boiling, and cover it over for three or four hours.
  3. Rub some fine loaf sugar on the lemons to attract the essence, and put it into a china bowl, into which the juice of the lemons is to be squeezed.
  4. Add a pound and a half of fine sugar, then put the water to the above, and three quarts of boiling milk.
  5. Pour the mixture through a jelly bag, till it is perfectly clear.--Another way.
  6. Pare a quantity of lemons, and pour some hot water on the peels.
  7. While infusing, boil some sugar and water to a good syrup, with the white of an egg whipt up.
  8. When it boils, pour a little cold water into it.
  9. Set it on again, and when it boils take off the pan, and let it stand by to settle.
  10. If there be any scum, take it off, and pour it clear from the sediment, to the water in which the peels were infused, and the lemon juice.
  11. Stir and taste it, and add as much more water as shall be necessary to make a very rich lemonade.
  12. Wet a jelly bag, and squeeze it dry;
  13. then strain the liquor, and it will be very fine.--To make a lemonade which has the appearance of jelly, pare two Seville oranges and six lemons very thin, and steep them four hours in a quart of hot water.
  14. Boil a pound and a quarter of loaf sugar in three pints of water, and skim it clean.
  15. Add the two liquors to the juice of six China oranges, and twelve lemons;
  16. stir the whole well, and run it through a jelly bag till it is quite clear.
  17. Then add a little orange water, if approved, and more sugar if necessary.
  18. Let it be well corked, and it will keep.--Lemonade may be prepared in a minute, by pounding a quarter of an ounce of citric or crystalised lemon acid, with a few drops of quintessence of lemon peel, and mixing it by degrees with a pint of clarified syrup or capillaire.

Plating

Cookware for this recipe

  • Saucepan
  • Mixing bowl
  • Chef's knife
  • Vegetable peeler
  • Wooden spoon
  • Slotted spoon
  • Sieve
Source Public domain in the USA
Credit

From The Cook and Housekeeper's Complete and Universal Dictionary, by Eaton, Mary, active 1823-1849 (1822). Digitised by Project Gutenberg, eBook #29084 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/29084). Public domain in the USA; its status may differ elsewhere.

What was changed: As printed, from the book's text; Project Gutenberg's header and licence removed. Ingredient lines were read out of the text by a program. A historical recipe, not current advice.