Christmas Drinks

Christmas Drinks

And here is a recipe for a Christmas luxury, by Mrs Betty Parker, of Whitchurch,
Hants:
Ingredients:
1 oz. Angelica stem 1 pint brandy
1 oz. boned bitter almonds 1 pint syrup made with
white sugar
Method:
Steep the angelica and almonds in the brandy for a week, then strain off and add
the syrup to the liquor. "Improves with keeping—if you can keep it!"
CHRISTMAS GLOW
Ingredients:
1 bottle of one of your red 1 cup granulated sugar
wines 2 oz. honey
1 small glass cherry brandy Grated nutmeg to taste
1 glass brandy About one-third pint boiling
1 sliced lemon water
Method:
Heat wine, honey, lemon, nutmeg, sugar to near boiling point; then add brandy
and cherry brandy and lastly the water. Serve immediately.
CHRISTMAS PUNCH
For those who like punches (and who doesn't at Christmas?) here is an excellent
recipe:
Rub eight pieces of lump sugar on two big lemons, collecting all the fragrant
essential oil possible. Put the lumps in a bright saucepan with ¼ teaspoon of ground
cinnamon, ¼ teaspoon of grated nutmeg and ground cloves mixed, and a fair pinch of
salt. Put in 8 oz. each of brandy and Jamaica rum and add 16 oz. of boiling water. Heat up
the bowl, and strain into it the juice of two lemons. Heat up the mixture in the pan just to
miss boiling point and strain it through muslin in colander or sieve into the bowl. Now
add one pint of a good white country wine—elderflower, gooseberry, rhubarb or apple,
preferably sparkling—and serve with a cube of pineapple in each cup.
COOMASSIE
In a small tumbler break the yolk of a fresh egg and mix in one teaspoon icing
sugar. Add six drops Angostura, 1½ oz. sherry and half that amount of brandy. Fill glass
with shaved ice, shake well and strain. Dust with fresh-grated nutmeg and powdered
cinnamon. This approaches a flip.
EGG FLIP
Ingredients:
6 fresh eggs 1 lb. honey
¼ pint fresh cream 6 lemons
½ bottle brandy or ram
Method:
Wash the eggs carefully and place them in a bowl with the juice of the lemons and
one tablespoon very finely grated lemon rinds (avoiding the white pith, which imparts a
bitter taste). Cover closely with a clean cloth and allow to stand for 48 hours or until the
shells have dissolved into a mash. Then add the cream, honey and brandy or rum and mix
vigorously. Bottle immediately and cork tightly.
ORANGE COCKTAIL
Mix: 1 bottle orange wine, 1 wineglass whisky, and a dash of rum.
HOT COFFEE RUM
This is an excellent after-dinner drink for which, if possible, the coffee should be
freshly ground, as well as freshly made.
Into a small saucepan put six lumps of sugar, the finely pared rind of two oranges,
six cloves, and a stick of cinnamon. Add enough rum to cover the sugar and bring nearly
to the boil, stirring gently until the sugar is dissolved. Take care that it does not catch fire.
When ready stir the mixture into six cups of very strong, very hot black coffee and
serve immediately.
MILK PUNCH
(Modern version of an 1835 recipe)
Ingredients:
1 quart fresh milk 6 Seville oranges (or six
1 bottle rum or brandy ordinary oranges and six
1 pint rum (if desired) lemons)
1 gallon water 3 ½ lb. sugar
Method:
Peel the fruit very thinly, or use a grater, to exclude all white pith, which has a
bitter taste, and squeeze out all the juice. Soak the peel in the spirits for four days in a
corked large bottle. Put the sugar in a bowl and pour on the water, the milk (boiling, if it
has not been previously pasteurised) and the fruit juice. Stir well to dissolve the sugar.
Strain through several thicknesses of muslin or a jelly-bag, then bottle. This punch must
be drunk within a few days; if you wish to keep it longer than that before serving do not
add the water to the last minute, and then add it boiling, since the punch, of course,
should be drunk just warm.
PUNCH
Take two or three good fresh lemons, with rough skins quite yellow; some lumps
of good sugar; grate a handful of the skins of the lemons, through a bread grater, on to the
sugar; then squeeze in the lemons, bruise the sugar and stir the juice well together, for
much depends on the process of mixing the sugar and lemons; pour on them one quart of
boiling water, and again mix them well together (this is called the sherbet); add one pint
and a half of brandy, and the same quantity of rum; stir it up, then strain it through a
sieve; put in one quart of syrup, and one quart of boiling water.
RUBY DELIGHT
And here is a novelty most home winemakers will be able to compile, and which
is very popular with the ladies:
Ingredients:
½ bottle blackberry wine Wineglass ginger wine
½ bottle rhubarb wine Wineglass port wine
½ wineglass whisky.