Rub loaf-sugar over the peels of six lemons to break the little vessels and absorb the ambrosial oil of the lemons. Then squeeze out all the juice possible from six oranges and six lemons, removing the seeds; add to it five pounds of loaf-sugar (including the sugar rubbed over the peels) and two quarts of water, with five cloves and two blades of mace (in a bag); simmer this over the stove about ten minutes, making a sirup.

This sirup will keep forever. It should be bottled and kept to sweeten the liquors, whenever punch is to be made.

Mix then one pint of green tea, a scant pint of brandy, one quart of Jamaica rum, one quart of Champagne, and one tea-cupful of Chartreuse. When well mixed, sweeten it to taste with the sirup; pour it into the punch-bowl, in which is placed an eight or ten pound piece of ice. Slice three oranges and three lemons, removing the seeds, which put also into the punch-bowl.

Milk Punch (Mrs. Filley).

Ingredients: Four quarts of Jamaica rum, three quarts of water, five pints of boiling milk, three pounds of loaf-sugar, twenty-four lemons, two nutmegs.

Cut thin slices, or only the yellow part of the rinds of the twenty-four lemons. Let these thin parings and the two grated nutmegs infuse for twenty-four hours in one quart of the rum. It should be put in a warm place.

At the end of the twenty-four hours, add to the juice of the twenty-four lemons (freed from seeds) the water, sugar, rum, and also the rum containing the lemon-peel and nutmeg. Put all into a large vessel. When the sugar is dissolved, add the five pints of boiling milk while the mixture is being stirred all the time. It will curdle, of course. Then cover it, and let it stand still one hour, when filter it through a bag, until it is as clear and bright as a crystal. It may take three or four hours. Pale rum should be used. This quantity will make enough to fill about one dozen quart bottles. Cork them well, and keep them standing. It may be used at once, but it will not be in perfection until it is a year or two old. It will keep forever. The bag may be made three-cornered with a yard square of rather coarse Canton flannel.

This punch is nice to serve with mock-turtle soup, or it may be used for making Roman punch. Like sherry, it is a convenient beverage to offer, with cake, to a lady friend at any time.

Roman Punch.

Make or purchase lemon ice. Just before serving, put enough for one person at table into a saucer or punch-glass, and pour over two table-spoonfuls of the milk punch, made as in the last receipt. A course of Roman punch is often served at dinner parties just after the roast. There is no better, cheaper, or easier way of preparing it than this.

Claret Punch.

Cut up the yellow part of one lemon, and let it soak for three or four hours in half of a quart bottle of claret; add then the other half of the wine. Sweeten to taste, and add one bottle of soda. Put a clove into each glass before pouring out the punch.

Eggnog.

Ingredients: Six eggs, half a pound of sugar, half a pint of brandy or whisky, three pints of cream whipped to a froth.

Beat the yolks of the eggs and the sugar together until it is a froth; add the brandy or whisky, next the whites of the eggs beaten to a stiff froth, and then the whipped cream.

Sherry, Claret, or Catawba Cobblers.

Put four or five table-spoonfuls of the wine into a glass with half a table-spoonful of sugar; one or two thin slices of orange or lemon may be added. Fill the glass with finely chopped ice. Now pour this from one glass to another once or twice, to mix well. Put then two or three strawberries, or a little of any of the fruit of the season, for a garnish. The beverage can not be completed without the addition of two straws.

Lemonade.

Rub loaf-sugar over the peels of the lemons to absorb the oil; add to the lemon-juice the sugar to taste. Two lemons will make three glassfuls of lemonade, the remainder of the ingredients being water and plenty of ice chopped fine.

Tom and Jerry.

Ingredients: Four eggs and six large spoonfuls of powdered sugar beaten together very light (a perfect froth), six small wine-glassfuls of rum, and one pint of boiling water.

Stir the water into the mixture, and then turn it back and forth into two pitchers, the pitchers being hot, and the glasses also hot. Grate nutmeg on the top of each glass, and drink immediately.

Mint-julep.

Bruise several tender sprigs of fresh mint in a tea-spoonful of sugar dissolved in a few table-spoonfuls of water. Fill the glass to one-third with brandy, claret, sherry, or any wine preferred, and the rest with finely pounded ice. Insert some sprigs of mint with the stems downward, so that the leaves above are in the shape of a bouquet. Drink through a straw.

Milk Punch and Egg-and-milk Punch (see page 326).

Blackberry Cordial.

Ingredients: Two quarts of blackberry juice, two pounds of loaf-sugar, half an ounce of powdered cinnamon, half an ounce of powdered allspice, half an ounce of powdered nutmeg, quarter of an ounce of powdered cloves.

Boil it all together two hours. Add, while hot, one pint of fourth-proof pure French brandy. Bottle it.

Currant Wine.

To two quarts of the currant-juice (after the currants are pressed) add one quart of water and three and a half pounds of sugar. Let it stand in an open jar until it stops fermenting; then draw it off carefully, bottle, and cork it securely.

Raspberry Vinegar (Miss Nellie Walworth).

Pour one quart of vinegar over three quarts of ripe black raspberries in a china vessel. Let it stand twenty-four hours, then strain it. Pour the liquor over three quarts of fresh raspberries, and let it infuse again for a day and night; strain again, and add one pound of white sugar to each pint of juice. Boil twenty minutes, skimming it well. Bottle when cold. When it is to be drunk, add one part of the raspberry vinegar to four parts of ice water.