Picnic Lemonade

A historical recipe from The Fun of Cooking, by Caroline French Benton (1914).

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A historical recipe

The Fun of Cooking: A Story for Girls and Boys, by Caroline French Benton (1914). Project Gutenberg eBook #33213.

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

Ingredients 4 ingredients

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.
Hot sugar. Hot sugar sticks to skin and burns far hotter than boiling water: don't touch or taste it. Keep a bowl of cold water close, and keep children away while it cooks.
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.

8 lemons.
12 glasses of water.
3 cups of sugar.
1 cup of raspberry juice.
Roll the lemons till they are soft;
cut them and squeeze the juice out.
Put the sugar in a little pan with a glass of water, and boil it two minutes;
add this to the lemon and raspberry juice, and strain it;
add the rest of the water;
serve with broken ice in a glass pitcher.
"Be sure and boil the sugar and water together, Mildred, whenever you make any kind of drink like lemonade;
it is so much better than if you put in plain sugar.
When it is all done, if it is not quite sweet enough, you can add a little powdered sugar without hurting it." "Mother, we forgot the surprise!
You remember, 'every luncheon must have a surprise,' you said;
see, here it is in the book." "Dear me, so I did!
What shall it be, Mildred?
I can't seem to think of another thing for that picnic." "Neither can I." "Stuffed dates!" exclaimed Mother Blair, presently.
"I knew there must be something, and those will be exactly right."