Let us commence with that grand old British eye-opener,
Cherry Brandy.
There are more ways than one of making this. Here is an old recipe.
Take six dozen pounds of cherries, half red and half black, and mash7 or squeeze them with your hands to pieces, and put to them three gallons of brandy, and let them stand steeping twenty-four hours. Then put the mash’d cherries and liquor a little at a time into a canvas bag, and press it as long as any juice will run; sweeten it to your taste, and put it into a vessel8 fit for it, and let it stand a {186} month, and bottle it out; put a lump of loaf-sugar into every bottle.
Another way, and a nicer; the idea of squeezing cherries to pieces with the human hands savouring of barbarism—and fingers.
Take Black Geans or Black Morellos—but remember that the former are sweet, the latter acid and bitter, and there will be a great difference in the results. They must not be over-ripe. Take off the stalks, and if you choose prick9 them with a pin. Fill a bottle with them three-quarters, pour in brandy to the neck, and cork10 it up. It will be ready in a month.
It will be noticed that no mention of sugar is made in the above. The necessary quantity would naturally vary, according to the description of cherry employed.
Yet another—my way.
This can either be made from Black Gean cherries, or Morellos, but the latter are better for the purpose. Every pound of cherries will require one quarter of a pound of white sugar and one pint11 of the best brandy. The cherries, with the sugar well-mixed with them, should be placed in wide-mouthed bottles, filled up with brandy; and if the fruit be previously12 pricked13, the mixture will be ready in a month. But a better blend is procured14 if the cherries are untouched, and this principle holds good with all fruit treated in this way, and left corked15 for at least three months.
It should be borne in mind that these cordials are far better when home-made—provided always {187} the best materials be used. The cherry brandy, sloe gin, etc. etc., which is bought is not always made with ’65 cognac. Remember how many people have to make some sort of profit out of what can be purchased over the counter.
One more way.
Put six pounds of black cherries, six pounds of Morellos, and two pounds of strawberries in a cask. Bruise16 them slightly with a stick, then add three pounds of sugar, twelve cloves17, half an ounce of powdered cinnamon, and two grated nutmegs, with a quarter of the kernels19 of the cherry-stones, and a handful of mint and balm. Pour over these six quarts of brandy, and let the cask remain open for ten days. Then close it, and in two months it will be fit for use.
Cherry Gin
can be made in the same way as any of the above, merely substituting Old Tom for cognac. And if you want to make it extra good, use sugar-candy instead of the ordinary “best lump.”
Cherry Whisky
was introduced to the public at the Brewers’ Exhibition in the Royal Agri-cul-tural Hall, London, in 1898. I have not tasted it, but suppose that the method of making it is similar to any of the above recipes, sub-sti-tut-ing Glen-livet. But I fancy brandy or gin would always be preferable; for whisky does not blend well with fruit. {188}
Sloe Gin.
The difference between this cordial as made at home, and allowed to mature gradually, and the stuff retailed21 in taverns22, is marked. ’Tis a “refresher” which has only become popular within the last few years; and consequently within a radius23 of twenty miles from London, the sloe-bushes are stripped of their fruit, before it is fit to pick, by the poorer classes, who can obtain sixpence per pound—or something like that price—for sloes in the market. But the sloe should not be picked for this purpose until it has experienced at least one night’s frost.
Allow one pound of sugar to one pound of sloes. Half fill an ordinary quart bottle with sugared sloes, and fill up with gin. If the sloes have been previously pricked, the liqueur will be fit for use in a couple of months; but ’tis better not to prick them, but let the gin do its own work of extraction. In that case the bottle should not be uncorked within twelve months.
A great deal of the alleged24 sloe gin sold is light in colour, and has evidently been hurried in its preparation. A great deal more is quite innocent of sloe juice, and is merely inferior gin, diluted25 and coloured. The orthodox sloe gin should bear the hue26 of “fruity” port wine. See that you get it.
Highland Cordial.
Here is another recipe into which the wine of bonnie Scotland enters. At one time the {189} cordial was popular with the Scots, who now, however, prefer their whisky unadorned.
Steep in one bottle of old Scotch27 whisky one pint of white currants, stripped of their stalks, the thin rind of a lemon, and one teaspoonful28 of essence of ginger. Let the mixture stand for forty-eight hours, and then strain through a hair sieve29. Add one pound of loaf-sugar, which will take at least a day to thoroughly30 dissolve. Then bottle off and cork well. It will be ready for use in three months, but will keep longer.
A cordial which is but seldom asked for nowadays was known in the seventeenth century as
King Charles II.’s Surfeit31-Water.
Take a gallon of the best aqua-vit?, and a quart of brandy, and a quart of anniseed-water, a pint of poppy-water, and a pint of damask-rose-water; put these in a large glass jar, and put to it a pound of fine powdered sugar, a pound and a half of raisins32 stoned, a quarter of a pound of dates stoned and sliced, one ounce of cinnamon bruised33, cloves one ounce, four nutmegs bruised, one stick of licorice scraped and sliced; let all these stand nine days close covered, stirring three or four times a day; then add to it three pounds of fresh poppies, or three handfuls of dried poppies, a sprig of angelica, two or three of balm; so let it stand a week longer, then strain it out and bottle it.
And then notify the undertaker, I should think. The Merry Monarch34 had his faults, but, surfeit or no surfeit, it is hard to believe that a king could bring himself to lap such a {190} “hell-broth” as the above. Pah! Let us take the taste out with
Ginger Brandy.
Bruise slightly two pounds of black currants, and mix them with one ounce and a half of ground ginger. Pour over them one bottle and a half of best old brandy, and let the mixture stand for two days. Strain off the liquid, and add one pound of loaf-sugar which has been boiled to a syrup35 in a little water. Bottle and cork closely.
Orange-flower Brandy.
There is not much of this in the market, or the store-cupboard.
Take a gallon of best brandy, and mix with it a pound of orange-flowers which have been boiled. Save the water, sweeten it, and bottle off the mixture.
Carraway Brandy.
Steep an ounce of carraway seeds and six ounces of loaf-sugar in a quart of brandy. Let this stand nine days, then strain and bottle.
And the author of the above adds: “?’Tis a good cordial.” Three hundred years ago carraways invariably figured at the dessert-table in England. The seeds now appear either in cakes for school-treats, sugar-plums, or the favourite liqueur known as
Kümmel.
This is principally made in Russia, and is an excellent stomachic. Own brother to the {191} carraway seed is the anise seed, which appears in a liqueur, made chiefly at Bordeaux, and called
Anisette.
Personally, I prefer Kümmel, and the other is more of a drug than an enlivening potion. Cough remedies for the most part contain anise seed, which is also largely used at a “drag” hunt, hounds being especially keen on the scent36.
Apricot Brandy.
This is not often met with away from its home in the United States.
To every pound of fruit (which should not be quite ripe) add one pound of loaf-sugar. Put the apricots into a preserving-pan, with sufficient water to cover them. Let them boil up, and then simmer gently until tender. Remove the skins. Clarify and boil the sugar, then pour it over the fruit, and let it remain twenty-four hours. Then put the apricots into wide-mouthed bottles, and fill them up with syrup and brandy, half and half. Cork tightly, and seal the tops of the corks37.
This apricot brandy should be prepared in the month of July, and kept at least twelve months before using.
Quince Whisky.
I once superintended the brew20 of a decoction of quinces and Scotch whisky. The quinces were treated exactly as the apricots are in the above recipe, and we kept the stuff bottled up for a year. I don’t think I ever tasted anything nastier. {192}
Orange Brandy
should be made in the month of March, and, well-made, is the best of all cordials, being especially valuable on a cold morning just before proceeding38 with the hounds to draw Newton Wood.
Take the thin rinds of six Seville oranges, and put them into a stone jar, with half a pint of the strained juice and half a gallon of good old brandy. Let it remain three days, then add one pound and a quarter of loaf-sugar—broken, not pounded—and stir till the sugar is dissolved. Let the liquor stand a day, strain it through paper until quite clear, pour into bottles, and cork tightly. The longer it is kept the better.
The ancients apparently39 interpreted the word “cordial” in a different way to our later way; and their cordials were chiefly used in the sick-room.
The Saffron Cordial,
for instance, was chiefly employed to cure fainting fits, the ague, and the smallpox40. I think I should have preferred all three complaints at once.
Fill a large still with marigold flowers, and strew41 on it an ounce of ground nut-meg; beat them grosly, and take an ounce of the best English saf-fron, pull it, and mix with the flowers; then take three pints42 of mus-ca-dine or tent, or Malaga sack, and with a sprig of rose-mary dash it on the flowers; then distil43 it off with a slow fire, and let it drop on {193} white sugar-candy; draw it off till it begins to be sowre, save a pint of the first running to mix with other waters on an extra-or-di-nary occasion; mix the rest together to drink by itself. Take five or six spoon-fuls at a time.
As Hamlet observes, on a memorable44 occasion: “Oh, hor-rible, hor-ri-ble, most hor-ri-ble?!?”
Cura?oa
is not only the best known of all liqueurs, but the most wholesome45. It will blend equally well with brandy and whisky. The best, in fact the original brand, is made in Amsterdam, with the peel of a very rare orange which grows in the island of Cura?oa, and falls from the tree before it is ripe. The peel of this is dried, and is known in the trade as the Cura?oa of Holland, to distinguish it from other Cura?oas which have not the same property, although they are often sold in place of it. The Dutch distillers naturally keep their process a secret, but the French imitators declare that the Dutch secret is merely as follows: that five kilogrammes of dried peel of the Cura?oa of Holland and the zests46 of eighty fresh oranges are submitted to the action of sixty litres of alcohol (85 degrees, French measurement), and that, save in the colour, there is no real difference between white Cura?oas and brown. At all events either is very useful in a cocktail47, or swizzle; and there are many restorative compounds, or “tonics” as they are called, into which the liqueur enters. {194}
Cassis,
owing to the ridiculously-high duty imposed upon its importation, is comparatively unknown in England, although it can be obtained at every little roadside cabaret in France, cheap enough. The cassis of Dijon has a great reputation as a cooling drink. There is an infinitesimal portion of alcohol in it, and it can, I should say, be easily made at home by anybody who possesses some nice ripe black-currants. Still the nearest the ordinary English householder gets to cassis is in the man-u-fac-ture of so-called “black-currant tea”; and you only get that when you have a sore throat.
Chartreuse.
One of the most severe sects48 of monks man-u-fac-ture a liqueur which is the highest prized and priced of all, for the benefit of Sybarites who deny themselves no luxury in life. St. Bruno the founder49 of this order chose for his monastery50 the most desolate51 and barren spot he could find in the mountains of Dauphiné, and forbade his followers52 to eat the flesh of bird or beast; the fruit of the vine and strong waters being likewise defended. But one of them discovered, nev-er-the-less, that a most se-duc-tive liquid could be distilled53 from plants, chief amongst them being Angelica Archangelica—a plant which it is probable did not receive its holy name until trial had been made of the distillation54. The Carthusian monks have the sole right of selling this liqueur—a right which brings them in a very {195} substantial revenue; for Chartreuse is esteemed55—in France, at all events—above all chasses. The yellow kind is the best, and the white mildest of the three, of which the green is fiery56. Personally, I prefer cura?oa, or, better still, cognac ’65.
The name of the “little refreshers” consumed at tavern-bars in large cities is legion. I have heard the following compounds called for, at dif-fer-ent times: sherry-and-bitters—there being at least half a dozen sorts of bitters—gin-and-ditto, whisky-and-ditto; vermouth (Italian or French), vermouth-and-sloe-gin, gin-and-sherry, gin-and-orange-gin, sloe-gin, gin-and-sloe-gin (commonly called “slow-and-quick”), cura?oa-and-brandy, whisky alone, brandy alone, gin alone. And in the Borough57 there is a dreadful mix-ture known by the approp-ri-ate name of
Twist.
“This,” says an esteemed cor-re-spon-dent, “is a favourite liqueur of the porters in the hop-warehouses. You go into the ‘Red Cross,’ for instance, and ask for a ‘?’alf-quartern o’ Twist in a three-out glass,’ and you will find that it consists of equal parts of rum and gin, and is a powerful pick-me-up after a wet night.”
I should question the “pick-me-up” part of this story; therefore shall not schedule “Twist” in my list of Restoratives, in the next chapter.
Kirschenwasser.
This is a wholesome and reviving liqueur made from the cherries which grow in the Black Forest. It is not as potent58 as maraschino, which {196} is also made from cherries, in another place. But the Black Forest cherry-water requires a little treatment to render it palatable59.
Put a little in a saucer; take a lump of sugar, set fire to it, and replace it in the saucer, so that the rest of the liquid may be set ablaze60. When the flame is burnt out and the sugar melted, the liqueur is fit to drink.
Noyeau
is made from white brandy and apricot-kernels, and is the sweetest, as well as the most pernicious of all liqueurs. I do not know how many glasses it would take to kill an ordinary man, but most people know that noyeau contains hydrocyanic acid of which none but those tired of the world would care to drink too much.
Parfait Amour
“What’s in a name???” This is simply bad orange-bitters, and there is neither love nor perfection in it. But they say that in dear old England, in the olden time, before oranges could be bought at three-halfpence per dozen, it was customary for a lover, on New Year’s Day, to present his sweetheart with an orange stuck all over with cloves, as an emblem61 of Perfect Love. The sweetheart of to-day prefers a bangle, or a bicycle.
One more liqueur,
Maraschino.
This is a bitter-sweet liqueur made at Zara from the kernel18 of the Marasca cherry, or gean {197} of Dalmatia. The word implies bitterness, yet the liquid is sweet enough to catch flies. “It is a curious fact,” says a modern writer, “in natural history that the fair sex prefer a sweet liqueur to the finest wine; and they have such a tendency to maraschino that Mr. Hayward has proposed that whereas the toast most honoured among men is Wine and Women, they should adopt as their own return toast—Men and Maraschino.”
The French make different imitations of the true liqueur, one of them from peach-stones, which they call “Marasquin de pêches.” And in the true Maraschino of Zara there be a few peach-stones mixed with those of the geans. These are small and quite black, and are fermented62 first with honey, then with the leaves and kernels of the fruit, and are last of all distilled and sweetened with sugar.
One more cordial, to finish the chapter. The recipe was given in the Lady’s Pictorial63, by Mrs. C. E. Humphry, the delightful64 and ever-welcome “Madge” of Truth. I can vouch65 for the efficacy of the potion.
Ginger Cordial.
Two quarts of Scotch whisky, three lemons sliced, one ounce of ground ginger, half an ounce of carraway seeds, three pounds of lump-sugar, one ounce of bitter almonds, three ounces of sweet almonds, one pound of raisins. Put all into a crock, and stir every day for three weeks. Then strain through three folds of blotting-paper, or one fold of filtering-paper, and bottle.
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highland
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| n.(pl.)高地，山地 | |
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ginger
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| n.姜，精力，淡赤黄色；adj.淡赤黄色的；vt.使活泼，使有生气 | |
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monks
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| n.修道士，僧侣( monk的名词复数 ) | |
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benefactors
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quaint
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| adj.古雅的，离奇有趣的，奇怪的 | |
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tavern
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| n.小旅馆，客栈；小酒店 | |
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mash
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| n.麦芽浆，糊状物，土豆泥；v.把…捣成糊状，挑逗，调情 | |
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vessel
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prick
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| v.刺伤，刺痛，刺孔；n.刺伤，刺痛 | |
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cork
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pint
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previously
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| adv.以前，先前（地） | |
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pricked
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procured
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corked
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bruise
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cloves
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kernel
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| n.(果实的)核，仁；(问题)的中心，核心 | |
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kernels
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brew
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retailed
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taverns
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radius
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alleged
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diluted
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hue
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scotch
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| n.伤口，刻痕；苏格兰威士忌酒；v.粉碎，消灭，阻止；adj.苏格兰(人)的 | |
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teaspoonful
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sieve
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thoroughly
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surfeit
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raisins
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bruised
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monarch
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syrup
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scent
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corks
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proceeding
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apparently
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smallpox
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strew
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pints
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distil
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| vt.蒸馏；提取…的精华，精选出 | |
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memorable
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wholesome
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zests
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cocktail
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sects
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Founder
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monastery
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desolate
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followers
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distilled
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distillation
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| n.蒸馏，蒸馏法 | |
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esteemed
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| adj.受人尊敬的v.尊敬( esteem的过去式和过去分词 )；敬重；认为；以为 | |
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fiery
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borough
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| n.享有自治权的市镇；(英)自治市镇 | |
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58
potent
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| adj.强有力的，有权势的；有效力的 | |
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59
palatable
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| adj.可口的，美味的；惬意的 | |
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60
ablaze
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| adj.着火的，燃烧的；闪耀的，灯火辉煌的 | |
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61
emblem
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| n.象征，标志；徽章 | |
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62
fermented
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| v.（使）发酵( ferment的过去式和过去分词 )；（使）激动；骚动；骚扰 | |
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63
pictorial
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| adj.绘画的；图片的；n．画报 | |
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64
delightful
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| adj.令人高兴的，使人快乐的 | |
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65
vouch
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| v.担保；断定；n.被担保者 | |
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