- RecipeCurio.com - https://recipecurio.com -

Fruit Beverages – The Enterprising Housekeeper

Here are pages 65 and 66 from the vintage booklet The Enterprising Housekeeper [1] from the sixth edition (1906).

Fruit Beverages

Lemonade

Squeeze the juice from the lemons, cut them in small pieces and cover with sugar. Let stand at least an hour, then press out the juice the sugar has extracted. The volatile, aromatic oil of lemons and oranges is in their skins, and twice as much lemonade of a better quality can be made in this way than by the use of the juice alone.

Boil one-half of a cup of sugar with one-fourth of a cup of water until it spins a light thread. Take from the fire, add one cup of lemon juice and the juice and sugar from the skins. Add water and sugar to taste and serve ice cold.

Pineapple Lemonade

1 cupful of sugar
1 cupful of canned pineapple
1 cup of water
Juice of two lemons

Boil the sugar and water until it spins a light thread. Put the pineapple through the Fruit Press and add to the syrup with the juice of the lemons. When ready to serve, add water and sugar, if needed, to taste. Serve ice cold.

Fruit Punch

2 cupfuls of sugar
1/2 cup of orange juice
1 cupful of strawberry juice
1 cupful of water
1/2 cup of lemon juice
1 cupful of pineapple juice
1/2 cup of Maraschino cherries.

Boil the sugar and water to a syrup, and add the fruit juices. Let stand twenty minutes, strain and chill. Add the whole cherries. Sweeten or weaken, if necessary, to taste, and serve ice cold. It will rarely need reducing with water unless the juices of preserved fruits have been used.

Cherry Syrup

2 cupfuls of granulated sugar
2 cupfuls of cold water
2 cupfuls of cherry juice

Stone the cherries. Dissolve the sugar in the water, add the cherries and their juice, and cook for ten minutes. Take from the fire and put through the Press. Return to the fire and boil until a thick syrup is formed. Seal when hot. Serve with shaved ice, thinning with cold water to taste.

Raspberry, strawberry, pineapple and blackberry syrup may be made in the same manner. When berries are used, it is better to put first through the Press and strain before cooking.

Blackberry Cordial

To one quart of blackberry juice, extracted by the Fruit Press take

1 quart of syrup made as directed.
2 teaspoonfuls of ground cloves
1 teaspoonful of mace
1 teaspoonful of allspice
4 teaspoonfuls of ground cinnamon

Add the fruit juices and spices to the syrup and boil until a syrup is formed. Take from the fire and cool. When cool add one pint of brandy to every quart of fruit juice used; strain through a muslin bag, bottle and cork.

Raspberry Shrub

For every cupful of fruit juice take one-half cupful of cider vinegar and two cupfuls of sugar. Put the fruit juice, sugar and vinegar over the fire, stir until the sugar dissolves and boil to a thick syrup. Skim, if necessary, strain and bottle.

All fruit juices are used in the same manner. When served, allow one-fourth cupful of syrup to three-fourths cupful of ice water. Should the syrup be too thin, do not adhere to this proportion of water. Taste is the best guide.

Elderblossom Wine

1 quart of elderberry blossoms
9 pounds of sugar
1 yeast cake
3 gallons of water
3 pounds of raisins
1/2 cup of lemon juice

The blossoms should be picked carefully from the stems and the quart measure packed full. Put the sugar and water together over the fire, stir until the sugar is dissolved, then let it come to a boil without stirring. Boil five minutes, skim and add the blossoms. As soon as the blossoms are well stirred in, take from the fire and cool. When lukewarm add the yeast dissolved in lukewarm water and the lemon juice. Put in an earthen jar and let stand six days, stirring thoroughly three times daily. The blossoms must be stirred from the bottom of the jar each time. On the seventh day strain through a cloth and add the raisins, seeded. Put in glass preserve jars and cover tightly. Do not bottle until January.