HFF 5.20: Beverage

The Challenge: Beverage. Make something to drink.

The Recipe: Lemonade from Two Thousand Five Hundred Practical Receipts

The Date/Year and Region: 1837, London

How Did You Make It: I juiced 1 lemon, which yielded a generous 1 oz of juice (maybe closer to 1.5oz, definitely less than 2). To this I added 5 oz of water, 1 Tbsp granulated sugar, 1 oz of gin and about 1/32 tsp baking soda, stirring well.

Total Time: 5 minutes.

Total Cost: ~$1 for 1 lemon and the small amount of gin

How Successful Was It?: Lackluster compared to other lemonades I've made, very good compared to my expectations for a gin cocktail. It tasted like lemon alright, and even had some complexity to it, but didn't have the sharp acidic taste of lemonade. I expect that this was the soda. Making this again (which I might do, because I appreciate the amount of each ingredient being specified), I'd probably omit the soda and gin both, as unnecessary complications.

How Accurate Is It? I'm feeling pretty good, what with the having specific measures and few ingredients. I even managed to find an English gin! Which claims to be made from its original 1880s recipe; this was also the cheapest gin at Trader Joe's, so I didn't have high expectations. Part of the reason I selected this receipt (beyond wanting some lemonade) was because I was intrigued at the inclusion of gin--the spirit has a bad reputation at this period, so I was not expecting to see it show up in a lemonade receipt. The sugar amount was a guess, and if/when I make this again, I'd probably start with 1 tsp and adjust the amount of sugar by taste. I did not research lemon varieties. I used a little more lemon juice than strictly intended, but my gut feeling is that this isn't a game-changer. Making a larger batch would probably allow me to be more precise without wasting any fruit. The one mistake I made was in using baking soda (sodium bicarbonate), which upon re-reading likely meant sodium carbonate (wash soda). The soda I used did not give the desired effervescence in any case.

 

This is a very complicated recipe.

Lots to see: 1837 lemonade with gin.