Slice fresh, juicy lemons; pare them carefully, lay a piece in the bottom of each cup; sprinkle with white sugar and pour the tea, very hot and strong, over them.

Or,

Send around the sliced lemon with the cups of tea, that each person may squeeze in the juice to please himself. Some leave the peel on, and profess to like the bitter flavor which it imparts to the beverage. The truth is, the taste for this (now) fashionable refreshment is so completely an acquired liking, that you had best leave to your guests the matter of “peel on” or “peel off.” There are those whom not even fashion can reconcile to the peculiar “smack” of lemon-rind after it has been subjected to the action of a boiling liquid.

Tea À la Russe is generally, if not invariably drunk without cream, and is plentifully sweetened. It is very popular at the “high teas” and “kettle-drums,” so much in vogue at this time,—tea being to women, say the cynics, a species of mild intoxicant, of which they are not to be defrauded by evening dinners and their sequitur of black coffee. Others, who cleave to ancient customs, and distrust innovations of all kinds, will have it that the popularity of these feminine carousals has its root in remorseful hankering after the almost obsolete “family tea.” “Since there must be fashionable follies,” growl these critics, “this is as harmless as any that can be devised, and is, assuredly, less disastrous to purse and health than an evening crush and supper.”

For once, we say “Amen” to the croakers. The “kettle-drum” is objectionable in nothing except its absurd name, and marks a promising era in the history of American party-giving.

Cold Tea.

Mixed tea is better cold than either black or green alone. Set it aside after breakfast, for luncheon or for tea, straining it into a perfectly clean and sweet bottle, and burying it in the ice. When ready to use it, you must fill a goblet three-quarters of the way to the top with the clear tea; sweeten it more lavishly than you would hot, and fill up the glass with cracked ice. It is a delicious beverage in summer. Drink without cream.

Iced Tea À la Russe.

To each goblet of cold tea (without cream), add the juice of half a lemon. Fill up with pounded ice, and sweeten well. A glass of champagne added to this makes what is called Russian punch.

Tea Milk-punch.

1 egg beaten very light.

1 small glass new milk.

1 cup very hot tea.

Sugar to taste.

Beat a teaspoonful or so of sugar with the egg; stir in the milk and then the hot tea, beating all up well together, and sweetening to taste. This is a palatable mixture, and is valuable for invalids who suffer much from weakness, or the peculiar sensation known as a “cold stomach.”

A “Cozy” for a Teapot.

This is not an article of diet, yet an accessory to good tea-making and enjoyable tea-drinking that deserves to be better known in America. It is a wadded cover or bag made of crotcheted worsted, or of silk, velvet or cashmere, stitched or embroidered as the maker may fancy, with a stout ribbon-elastic drawn loosely in the bottom. This is put over the teapot so soon as the tea is poured into it, and will keep the contents of the pot warm for an hour or more. Those who have known the discomfort, amounting to actual nausea, produced by taking a draught of lukewarm tea into an empty or weary stomach; or whose guests or families are apt to keep them waiting for their appearance at table until the “cheering” (if hot) “beverage” lowers in temperature and quality so grievously that it must be remanded to the kitchen, and an order for fresh issued—will at once appreciate the importance of this simple contrivance for keeping up the heat of our “mild intoxicant” and keeping the temper of the priestess at the tea-tray down.

Coffee with Whipped Cream.

For six cups of coffee, of fair size, you will need about one cup of sweet cream, whipped light with a little sugar. Put into each cup the desired amount of sugar, and about a table-spoonful of boiling milk. Pour the coffee over these, and lay upon the surface of the hot liquid a large spoonful of the frothed cream. Give a gentle stir to each cup before sending them around. This is known to some as mÉringued coffee, and is an elegant French preparation of the popular drink.

Frothed CafÉ au Lait.

1 quart strong, clear coffee, strained through muslin.

1 Scant quart boiling milk.

Whites of 3 eggs, beaten stiff.

1 table-spoonful powdered sugar, whipped with the eggs.

Your coffee urn must be scalded clean, and while it is hot, pour in the coffee and milk alternately, stirring gently. Cover; wrap a thick cloth about the urn for five minutes, before it goes to table. Have ready in a cream-pitcher the whipped and sweetened whites. Put a large spoonful upon each cup of coffee as you pour it out, heaping it slightly in the centre.

Frothed Chocolate. (Very good.)

1 cup of boiling water.

3 pints of fresh milk.

3 table-spoonfuls Baker’s chocolate, grated.

5 eggs, the whites only, beaten light.

2 table-spoonfuls of sugar, powdered for froth.

Sweeten the chocolate to taste.

Heat the milk to scalding. Wet up the chocolate with the boiling water and when the milk is hot, stir this into it. Simmer gently ten minutes, stirring frequently. Boil up briskly once, take from the fire, sweeten to taste, taking care not to make it too sweet, and stir in the whites of two eggs, whipped stiff, without sugar. Pour into the chocolate pot or pitcher, which should be well heated. Have ready in a cream pitcher, the remaining whites whipped up with the powdered sugar. Cover the surface of each cup with the sweetened mÉringue, before distributing to the guests.

If you like, you can substitute scented chocolate for Baker’s.

Chocolate or cocoa is a favorite luncheon beverage, and many ladies, especially those who have spent much time abroad, have adopted the French habit of breakfasting upon rolls and a cup of chocolate.

Milled Chocolate.

3 heaping table-spoonfuls of grated chocolate.

1 quart of milk.

Wet the chocolate with boiling water. Scald the milk and stir in the chocolate-paste. Simmer ten minutes; then, if you have no regular “muller,” put your syllabub-churn into the boiling liquid and churn steadily, without taking from the fire, until it is a yeasty froth. Pour into a chocolate-pitcher, and serve at once.

This is esteemed a great delicacy by chocolate lovers, and is easily made.

Soyer’s CafÉ au Lait.

1 cup best coffee, freshly roasted, but unground.

2 cups of boiling water.

1 quart boiling milk.

Put the coffee into a clean, dry kettle or tin pail; fit on a close top and set in a saucepan of boiling water. Shake it every few moments, without opening it, until you judge that the coffee-grains must be heated through. If, on lifting the cover, you find that the contents of the inner vessel are very hot and smoking, pour over them the boiling water directly from the tea-kettle. Cover the inner vessel closely and set on the side of the range, where it will keep very hot without boiling for twenty minutes. Then, add the boiling milk, let all stand together for five minutes more, and strain through thin muslin into the coffee-urn. Use loaf-sugar in sweetening.

The flavor of this is said to be very fine.

White Lemonade.

3 lemons.

3 cups loaf sugar.

2 glasses white wine.

2 quarts fresh milk, boiling hot.

Wash the lemons, grate all the peel from one into a bowl; add the sugar, and squeeze the juice of the three over these. After two hours add the wine, and then, quickly, the boiling milk. Strain through a flannel jelly-bag. Cool and set in the ice until wanted.

Claret Cup.

1 (quart) bottle of claret.

1 (pint) bottle of champagne.

½ pint best sherry.

2 lemons, sliced.

¼ pound loaf sugar dissolved in 1 cup cold water.

Let the sugar, water and sliced lemon steep together half an hour before adding to the rest of the ingredients. Shake all well together in a very large pitcher twenty or thirty times, and make thick with pounded ice, when you are ready to use it.

There is no better receipt for the famous “claret cup” than this.

Very Fine Porteree.

1 pint bottle best porter.

2 glasses pale sherry.

1 lemon peeled and sliced.

½ pint ice-water.

6 or 8 lumps of loaf sugar.

½ grated nutmeg.

Pounded ice.

This mixture has been used satisfactorily by invalids, for whom the pure porter was too heavy, causing biliousness and heartburn.

Ginger Cordial.

2 table-spoonfuls ground ginger, fresh and strong.

1 lb. loaf sugar.

½ pint best whiskey.

1 quart red currants.

Juice of 1 lemon.

Crush the currants in a stone vessel with a wooden beetle, and strain them through a clean, coarse cloth, over the sugar. Stir until the sugar is dissolved; add the lemon, the whiskey, and the ginger. Put it into a demijohn or a stone jug, and set upon the cellar-floor for a week, shaking up vigorously every day. At the end of that time, strain through a cloth and bottle. Seal and wire the corks, and lay the bottles on their sides in a cool, dry place.

An excellent summer drink is made by putting two table-spoonfuls of this mixture into a goblet of iced water. It is far safer for quenching the thirst, when one is overheated, than plain ice-water or lemonade.

Milk-Punch. (Hot.)

1 quart milk, warm from the cow.

2 glasses best sherry wine.

4 table-spoonfuls powdered sugar.

4 eggs, the yolks only, beaten light.

Cinnamon and nutmeg to taste.

Bring the milk to the boiling point. Beat up the yolks and sugar together; add the wine; pour into a pitcher, and mix with it, stirring all the time, the boiling milk. Pour from one vessel to another six times, spice, and serve as soon as it can be swallowed without scalding the throat.

This is said to be an admirable remedy for a bad cold if taken in the first stages, just before going to bed at night.

Mulled Ale.

3 eggs, the yolks only.

A pint of good ale.

2 table-spoonfuls loaf sugar.

A pinch of ginger, and same of nutmeg.

Heat the ale scalding hot, but do not let it quite boil. Take from the fire and stir in the eggs beaten with the sugar, and the spice. Pour from pitcher to pitcher, five or six times, until it froths, and drink hot.

Mulled Wine.

2 eggs, beaten very light with the sugar.

1 table-spoonful white sugar.

2 full glasses white wine.

½ cup boiling water.

A little nutmeg.

Heat the water, add the wine; cover closely and bring almost to a boil. Pour this carefully over the beaten egg and sugar; set in a vessel of boiling water and stir constantly until it begins to thicken. Pour into a silver goblet, grate the nutmeg on the top, and let the invalid drink it as hot as it can be swallowed without suffering.

A Summer Drink. (Very good.)

2 lbs. Catawba grapes.

3 table-spoonfuls loaf sugar.

1 cup of cold water.

Squeeze the grapes hard in a coarse cloth, when you have picked them from the stems. Wring out every drop of juice; add the sugar, and when this is dissolved, the water, surround with ice until very cold; put a lump of ice into a pitcher, pour the mixture upon it, and drink at once.

You can add more sugar if you like, or if the grapes are not quite ripe.

Rum Milk-Punch.

1 cup milk, warm from the cow.

1 table-spoonful of best rum.

1 egg, whipped light with a little sugar.

A little nutmeg.

Pour the rum upon the egg-and-sugar; stir for a moment and add the milk; strain and drink.

It is a useful stimulant for consumptives, and should be taken before breakfast.

Clear Punch.

½ cup ice-water.

1 glass white wine (or very good whiskey).

White of 1 egg whipped stiff with the sugar.

1 table-spoonful of loaf sugar.

A sprig of mint.

Pounded ice.

Mix well together and give to the patient, ice-cold.

Currant and Raspberry Shrub.

4 quarts ripe currants.

3 quarts red raspberries.

4 lbs. loaf sugar.

1 quart best brandy.

Pound the fruit in a stone jar, or wide-mouthed crock, with a wooden beetle. Squeeze out every drop of the juice; put this into a porcelain, enamel, or very clean bell-metal kettle, and boil hard ten minutes. Bring to the boil quickly, as slow heating and boiling has a tendency to darken all acid syrups. Put in the sugar at the end of the ten minutes, and boil up once to throw the scum to the top. Take it off; skim, let it get perfectly cold, skim off all remaining impurities, add the brandy and shake hard for five minutes. Bottle; seal the corks, and lay the bottles on their sides in dry sawdust.

Put up in this way, “shrub” will keep several years, and be the better for age. It is a refreshing and slightly medicinal drink, when mixed with iced water.

Strawberry Shrub.

4 quarts of ripe strawberries.

The juice of 4 lemons.

4 lbs. of loaf sugar.

1 pint best brandy, or colorless whiskey.

Mash the berries and squeeze them through a bag. Add the strained lemon-juice; bring quickly to a fast boil, and after it has boiled five minutes, put in the sugar and cook five minutes more. Skim as it cools, and, when quite cold, add the brandy. Be sure that your bottles are perfectly clean. Rinse them out with soda-and-water; then, with boiling water. The corks must be new. Soak them in cold water; drive into the bottles; cut off even with the top; seal with bees-wax and rosin, melted in equal quantities, and lay the bottles on their sides in dry sawdust.

Strawberries, preserved in any way, do not keep so well as some other fruits. Hence, more care must be taken in putting them up.

Lemon Shrub.

Juice of 6 lemons, and grated peel of two.

Grated peel of 1 orange.

3 lbs. loaf sugar.

3 pints of cold water.

3 pints of brandy or white whiskey.

Steep the grated peel in the brandy for two days. Boil the sugar-and-water to a thick syrup, and when it is cool, strain into it the lemon-juice and the liquor. Shake up well for five minutes, and bottle. Seal the bottles and lay them on their sides.

CuraÇoa.

Grated peel and the juice of 4 fine oranges.

1 lb. of rock-candy.

1 cup of cold water.

1 teaspoonful cinnamon.

½ teaspoonful nutmeg.

A pinch of cloves.

1 pint very fine brandy.

Break the candy to pieces in a mortar, or, by pounding it in a cloth, cover with cold water and heat to a boil, by which time the candy should be entirely dissolved. Add the orange-juice, boil up once and take from the fire. When cold, skim, put in the spices, peel, and brandy; put it into a stone jug, and let it stand for a fortnight in a cool place. Shake every day, and at the end of that time strain through flannel, and bottle.

This is an excellent flavoring for pudding sauces, custards, trifles, etc. For tipsy Charlottes and like desserts, it is far superior to brandy or wine.

Noyau.

½ pound sweet almonds.

Juice of 3 lemons, and grated peel of one.

2 pounds loaf sugar.

3 teaspoonfuls extract of bitter-almonds.

2 table-spoonfuls clear honey.

1 pint best brandy.

1 table-spoonful orange-flower water.

Blanch and pound the almonds, mixing the orange-flower water with them to prevent oiling. Add the sugar and brandy, and let these ingredients lie together for two days, shaking the jug frequently. Put in the lemon, honey and flavoring; shake hard, and leave in the jug a week longer, shaking it every day.

Strain through very fine muslin, bottle and seal.

The flavor of this is delicious in custards, etc. As a beverage, it must be mixed with ice-water.

Rose Syrup.

1½ pound of fresh rose-leaves.

2 pounds loaf sugar.

Whites of 2 eggs, whipped light.

1 pint best brandy.

1 quart cold water.

Boil the sugar and water to a clear syrup, beat in the whites of the eggs, and, when it has boiled up again well, take from the fire. Skim as it cools, and when a little more than blood-warm, pour it over half a pound of fresh rose-leaves. Cover it closely, and let it alone for twenty-four hours. Strain, and put in the second supply of leaves. On the third day put in the last half pound, and on the fourth, strain through a muslin bag. Add the brandy; strain again through a double linen bag, shake well and bottle.

This liqueur is delightful as a beverage, mixed with iced water, and invaluable where rose-flavor is desired for custards, creams or icing.

In the height of the rose-season, the requisite quantity of leaves may easily be procured. The receipt is nearly fifty years old.

Orange Cream.

12 large, very sweet oranges.

2 pounds loaf sugar.

1 quart milk, warm from the cow.

1 quart best French brandy.

Grate the peel from three of the oranges, and reserve for use in preparing the liqueur. Peel the rest, and use the juice only. Pour this with the brandy over the sugar and grated rind; put into a stone jug, and let it stand three days, shaking twice a day.

Then boil the milk, which must be new, and pour hot over the mixture, stirring it in well. Cover closely. When it is quite cold, strain through a flannel bag. Put in clean, sweet bottles, seal the corks, and lay the bottles on their sides in sawdust.

It will keep well, but will be fit for drinking in a week. Mix with iced water as a beverage. It is a fine flavoring liqueur for trifles, etc.

Vanilla Liqueur.

4 fresh vanilla beans.

4 pounds loaf sugar.

1 quart cold water.

1 pint best brandy, or white whiskey.

Split the beans and cut into inch lengths. Put them to soak in the brandy for three days. Boil the sugar and water until it is a thick, clear syrup. Skim well, and strain the vanilla brandy into it. Shake, and pour into small bottles.

I have called this a liqueur, but it is so highly flavored as to be unfit for drinking, except as it is used in small quantities in effervescing beverages. But it imparts an exquisite flavor to creams, whips, cakes, etc., that cannot be obtained from the distilled extracts.

The receipt was given to me as a modern prize by an expert in cookery, but in reading it over there floated to me a delicious breath from a certain storeroom, the treasures of which to my childish imagination rivalled those of the “island of delights,” where the streams were curaÇoa and capillaire, and the rocks loaf sugar. Led by this wandering zephyr of early association, I did not cease my rummaging until I unearthed the same receipt from an old cookery-book bequeathed to me by my mother.

---