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THE EXOTIC DRINKING BOOK
Put ingredients in ja,r, cover with rye, and stand for a fortnight.
Strain out spices through fine cloth or filter paper. Put back on fruit
until needed.
To serve: Cut spiral orange rind, also one spiral lemon rind, put in
whisky glass, and pour liquor over.... Can be served hot with ex–
cellent effect to fight off colds, influenzas, miasmas, megrims, swamp
mists, and blackwater fevers. In fact any sort of excuse seems to work.
ENGLISH MEAD, from THREE VERY OLD RECEIPTS
Far back in the dim past when thick-armed giant Saxon kings dined
in raftered halls, with flaxen-haired ladies below the salt, at the lower
tables, mead has been drunk in England. Huge horns washed down
haunches of venison, and the bones were tossed over shoulder to the
stag-hounds clamouring on the rush-strewn floors. Then more flagons
were brought, the minstrels sang, the cooking fires were poked up so
that sparks flew upward through the murky rafters, and another
haunch of deer meat was skewered on the black iron spit. The Saxons
were mighty men, mighty in battle, mighty with food trencher and
wassail bow
1.
OLD ENGLISH MEAD No. I, the CoTIAGER's DELIGHT
From a receipt dated 1677
Strained honey,
2
cups
Water, 4 quarts; rain water or
spring water is best
Sugar, brown or white,
Yz
cup
Lemon, peel,
l
chopped fine; and
JUICe l
Yeast,
Yz
cake spread on bit of
toast, Boating; or
l
tsp of
brewer's
(Or
l
oz compressed baker's
yeast)
Egg, whites
2,
beaten well
Mix honey, water a'nd sugar; add eggs, simmering slowly. When
scum stops forming, add lemon peel, juice; and yeast when it has be–
come just lukewarm. Stand.in a crock in a warm spot until it stops
working, then bottle as we would beer-either
with
caps or corks, tied
down for luck.
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