Harry Roberts

“Life isn’t all beer and skittles—but beer and skittles, or something better of the same sort, must form a good part of every Englishman’s education.”—Tom Hughes.

TO make Ale Cup.—Digest for a few hours (preferably for a few days) a quarter of an ounce each of cinnamon and allspice and a couple of cloves in a tea-cupful of sherry, and strain through muslin. Add to this infusion four bottles of ginger beer and a quart of ale. Cool on ice, and serve in tankards.

To make Badminton.—Mix in a jug, placed on ice, a bottle of soda-water, a bottle of claret, a glass of sherry, a glass of maraschino, the peel and juice of a lemon, a table-spoonful of castor sugar, and a sprig of borage.

To make Bishop.—Stick four Seville oranges with cloves, and roast them brown before the fire. Place the oranges in a covered earthenware vessel before the fire, together with half a pound of castor sugar, a quarter of an ounce of mixed ginger, nutmeg, and cinnamon, and half a pint each of water and of claret. Let it stand for a few hours—preferably for twenty-four hours. Then squeeze the oranges, and strain. Warm the mixture and add a boiling mixture of half a pint of claret and a quarter of a pint of port.

To make Boston Cooler.—Place in a tumbler a bottle of sarsaparilla, a bottle of ginger ale, the rind of a lemon thinly sliced, and a few bits of ice.

The best way to break a piece of ice into smaller pieces is to use a large needle and strike it with a hammer; or it may be crushed by wrapping it in a napkin or other cloth and hitting it with a mallet.

To make a Brandy Cocktail.—Fill a tumbler with chipped ice, and pour thereon three drops of Boker’s or angostura bitters, six drops of syrup, and half a wine-glassful of brandy. Stir for a minute, and then strain into a wine-glass containing either a small piece of lemon-peel or a few drops of curaÇoa.

To make Champagne Cobbler.—Half fill a large tumbler with shaved ice, add the juice of half a lemon and a tea-spoonful of soda, and fill up with champagne. Dash a little claret over the top. This should be served with straws.

To make Champagne Cup.—Mix in a jug, placed on ice, a bottle of champagne, two bottles of soda-water, a liqueur-glassful of brandy, a liqueur-glassful of curaÇoa or maraschino, two table-spoonfuls of sugar, a thin slice of cucumber (which remove before serving), a pound of ice, and a sprig of verbena.

To make Cider Cup.—Proceed as with champagne cup, replacing the champagne by cider, and using only one bottle of soda-water.

Simple Claret Cup.—Extract the “zest” or essential oil from the peel of a lemon by rubbing four lumps of sugar upon it. Pare another lemon as thinly as you can. Put the paring and the sugar into a large jug, and pour in a quart of claret. Mix all well together, and set the jug on ice for one hour. Just before serving add a pint of sparkling moselle and two bottles of soda-water. Put a few sprigs of borage or of balm into the jug.—J. R.

To make Coffee.—Purchase whole, and preferably unroasted, berries of good quality from a reliable source. Roast freshly as required, grind as soon as roasted, and make as soon as ground. Some admirably simple coffee-roasters are now obtainable. In the absence of a proper roaster, a frying-pan may be used, a few berries being roasted at a time. A very little butter should be placed in the pan, a low fire should be employed, and the berries should be kept on the move till they are of a light brown colour. It should be remembered that a single burnt berry will spoil the coffee. Coffee should be most carefully strained, and therefore some form of coffee-pot with percolator is desirable. Pack the freshly ground coffee tightly in the strainer, and slowly pour boiling water on it. As soon as the coffee has percolated through, it should be served. Boiling it drives off the aroma. A table-spoonful of ground coffee should be allowed to each cafÉ noir cup, or each large cup of cafÉ au lait. CafÉ au lait consists of an equal mixture of coffee and boiled milk.

To make Crambambuli.—Boil half a pound of sugar in a quart of ale. Beat six eggs with half a pint of cold ale. Add the boiling ale, and serve.

To make an Egg-and-Brandy Mixture.—Beat up the yolks of two eggs. Thoroughly mix with a tea-cupful each of brandy and cinnamon water.

To make Egg Flip. (From “Oxford Night-Caps.”)—Egg posset, alias egg flip, otherwise, in college language, rum booze. Beat up well the yolks of eight eggs with refined sugar pulverized, and a nutmeg grated; then extract the juice from the rind of a lemon by rubbing loaf sugar upon it, and put the sugar, with a piece of cinnamon and a quart of strong home-brewed beer, into a saucepan, place it on the fire, and when it boils take it off, then add a single glass of gin, or this may be left out, put the liquor into a spouted jug, and pour it gradually among the yolks of eggs, etc. All must be kept well stirred with a spoon while the liquor is being poured in. If it be not sweet enough, add loaf sugar.

To make Egg Nog.—Well beat the yolks of six eggs, and mix them with half a pound of castor sugar, stirring till the sugar is dissolved. Add this to a mixture of a pint of brandy, a pint of rum, and three pints of milk, stirring the while. Pour over the whole the well-beaten whites of six eggs, and lastly grate a little nutmeg over all. Having been cooled over ice, this should be served in small tumblers. If hot egg nog is desired, use hot milk.

Fruit Drink.—Mash one pint of strawberries, raspberries, currants, or mulberries in a pint of water, into which the juice of two lemons has been squeezed. Add a little sifted sugar. Strain through a hair sieve. If not sufficiently liquid, add some iced water or half a bottle of soda-water.—J. R.

To make John Collin’s Gin Sling, or Gin Fizz.—Mix in a tumbler the juice of half a lemon, a small tea-spoonful of castor sugar, and a wine-glassful of Hollands or of Old Tom gin. Stir for two minutes, then add a few pieces of ice and a bottle of soda-water.

To make La Masubal, or Lamb’s Wool.—Roast half a dozen apples, having previously cored them. Boil a small piece of crushed ginger, a quarter of a nutmeg grated, and two or three ounces of sugar in a quart of strong ale. Add the pulp of the roasted apples, and serve hot.

Lemonade.—To make one quart of lemonade allow six ripe lemons, or eight if they are not juicy. Take four good-sized lumps of sugar and rub the outside of the lemons well with them, in order to extract the “zest” of the rind. Pick out every pip, and squeeze every drop of juice the lemons will yield into a jug. Then add the four lumps of sugar, and pour in nearly a quart of boiling water. Cover the jug till the lemonade is cold. It is an improvement to set the lemonade on ice, but do not put any pieces of ice into it.—J. R.

The Long Drink.—Take a large soda-water tumbler, and bruise into it twelve or more strawberries, or any fruit which will yield not less than a table-spoonful of juice. Add a table-spoonful of cream, and fill up with soda-water.—J. R.

To make Mint Julep.—Place four or five sprigs of mint in a tumbler, together with a table-spoonful of castor sugar and two table-spoonfuls of water. Stir for two minutes, then add a wine-glassful of brandy, and fill up the tumbler with shaved ice. The lip of the tumbler may be rubbed with a piece of fresh pine-apple.

To make Mulled Ale.—Boil a quart of ale with a table-spoonful of sugar, a tea-spoonful of crushed ginger, and two or three cloves. Beat up eight eggs in a quarter of a pint of cold ale, and place in a large jug. Pour the boiling ale on this mixture, and then pour the resultant to and from another jug for some minutes in such a way as to froth the mixture fully.

Mulled Claret.—Put half a pint of claret into a saucepan with a little water, six or eight cloves, and a piece of cinnamon. Make it boiling hot. Grate a little nutmeg and a little ground ginger very finely into a jug, pour the claret in, and add a lump of sugar which has been well rubbed on the rind of a lemon.—J. R.

To make Hot Milk Punch.—Dissolve half a pound of sugar in a quart of boiling milk. Add half a bottle of brandy and a quarter of a bottle of rum, grating a little nutmeg over the surface, and adding the thin outer rind and juice of four lemons.

To make Milk Punch for Bottling.—Place the thin outer peel and the juice of three Seville oranges and three lemons, with half a nutmeg grated, in a bottle with a pint of brandy, and leave it to stand for a few days. Then add a quart of brandy, a pint of rum, a pound of sugar, and three pints of water. Add a quart of boiling milk, and stir thoroughly. Let the mixture stand for twenty-four hours, and then strain through muslin, and bottle.

To make Hot English Punch.—Rub twelve or more lumps of sugar over the rind of four lemons until the yellow part has been removed. Throw the sugar into the jug or bowl, and make up the weight of sugar to a pound. Add the juice of the lemons and two quarts of boiling water, and stir for five minutes. Then add a bottle of brandy and half a bottle of rum.

To make Cold Punch.—Proceed as with hot punch, but replacing the boiling water by cold water and a few pieces of ice. The punch itself is better not cooled over ice before serving.

To make Cold Gin Punch.—Rub a few lumps of sugar over the outer peel of a lemon, and place this, with the juice of the lemon, in a jug or bowl, together with enough sugar to make up to three ounces. Add half a pint of gin, a wine-glassful of maraschino, a pint of water, and two bottles of iced soda-water.

To make Purl.—Beat three eggs to a froth, and well mix them with two ounces of castor sugar and a gill of ale. Heat a quart of ale with a tea-spoonful of powdered nutmeg and a table-spoonful of crushed ginger. Slowly add the hot ale to the ale-and-eggs mixture. Lastly, add a wine-glassful of gin or brandy.

“For the rest, both the tap and the parlour of the Six Jolly Fellowship Porters gave upon the river, and had red curtains matching the noses of the regular customers, and were provided with comfortable fireside utensils, like models of sugar-loaf hats, made in that shape that they might, with their pointed ends, seek out for themselves glowing nooks in the depths, where they mulled your ale, or heated for you those delectable drinks—purls, flip, and dog’s nose. The first of these humming compounds was a specialty of The Porters, which, through an inscription on its door-posts, gently appealed to your feelings as ‘The Early Purl House.’”

To make Raspberry Vinegar.—Pour two quarts of best vinegar over one quart of raspberries picked from their stalks but not mashed. Leave them for twenty-four hours. Next day put the vinegar and fruit on the fire till it just boils, and then squeeze it through a cloth. Add two pounds of sugar, and let all simmer for ten minutes. This quantity makes six bottles. A gill of raspberry vinegar mixed into a tumbler of seltzer water makes a most refreshing drink.—J. R.

To make Raspberry Vinegar (another recipe).—Take a quart of raspberries and place them in a jar. Cover them with a pint of vinegar. In three days pour off the vinegar, and replace the raspberries by a fresh lot, again pouring the vinegar over them. In three days pour off the vinegar again, strain it, add a pound of sugar, boil for five minutes, skim it, and bottle it.

To make Saratoga Cobbler.—Half fill a tumbler with shaved ice, and place therewith a liqueur-glassful each of brandy, whisky, and vermouth, and four drops of angostura bitters. Mix thoroughly, strain, and add a slice of lemon.

To make Shandy Gaff.—Pour into a tumbler coincidently equal quantities of beer and ginger beer.

To make Sherbet.—Dry separately a pound of fine castor sugar, half a pound of carbonate of soda, and half a pound of tartaric acid. Add to the sugar a large tea-spoonful of essence of lemon, then add the acid and soda, and well mix. The sherbet should at once be securely bottled, as the least damp destroys its virtue.

To make Sherry Cobbler.—Half fill a tumbler with shaved ice. Add two wine-glassfuls of sherry and a table-spoonful of castor sugar. Stir. This should be served with straws.

To make a Syllabub.—Place in a large basin half a pint of sherry and three ounces of castor sugar. Dissolve the sugar, and then add to the mixture a pint of warm milk slowly poured from a height so as to make a froth.

To make Tewahdiddle.—“This is a right gossip’s cup, that far exceeds all the ale that ever Mother Bunch made in her lifetime.” To half a pint of beer add a dessert-spoonful of brandy, half a tea-spoonful of brown sugar, a slice of lemon and some nutmeg grated. It may be drunk cold, or the beer may be heated before mixing.

To make a bowl of Wassail.—“At night to sup, and then to cards, and last of all, to have a flaggon of ale and apples, drunk out of a wood cup, as a Christmas draught, which made all merry.” Boil a quarter of an ounce each of bruised ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, and a couple each of cloves, corianders, and cardamoms in three-quarters of a tumblerful of water for ten minutes. Add a quart of ale, a bottle of sherry, and from half a pound to a pound of sugar. Heat, but do not get too near the boiling-point. Then beat the yolks of six eggs and the whites of three eggs, and throw them into the bowl. Slowly add half the heated ale and wine, stirring all the while. Bring the remainder to the boil and pour it also in the bowl. Lastly, throw into the bowl six roasted apples which had been cored and stuffed with sugar and think of Puck’s confession—