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Ale-Berry
Soak two large spoonfuls of oatmeal groats in a little water for an hour, strain the liquor, and add to it half a pint of boiling beer or porter; pour the mixture into a saucepan, and boil it; grate a little whole ginger into it, and any seasoning which may be preferred; sweeten it to taste. Time, ten minutes to boil. Sufficient for one person. Probable cost, 3d.
A thin, warm ale gruel meant to be drunk rather than eaten, and one of the simplest things in the book. The whole character of it depends on the starchy soaking water, so read the second clause carefully.
- Do not throw away the liquorThe instruction to "strain the liquor" means you keep the cloudy soaking water and discard the groats. That starch is the only body the drink has; the grain itself contributes nothing at this stage.
- GroatsOatmeal groats here are whole or coarsely cut hulled oats, closer to modern steel-cut oats than to rolled. Rolled oats will work in a pinch but release starch faster, so an hour of soaking will give a thicker, gluier result.
- Two large spoonfulsA Victorian "large spoonful" was not a standardised measure, but it is usually read as something close to a modern tablespoon, so roughly 2 tablespoons of dry grain to 10 fl oz of beer. The measure is loose; the drink is meant to be barely thickened.
- Half a pintAn imperial pint is 20 fl oz, so half a pint is 10 fl oz, or about 1 1/4 US cups. That is one generous mugful, which matches the stated yield of one person.
- Which beerPorter or a mild English ale is what is meant. A modern heavily hopped IPA turns aggressively bitter when boiled and reduced, so choose a low-hop dark ale, brown ale or stout.
- Boiling timeTen minutes at a boil will drive off some of the alcohol and concentrate the malt. Boil it uncovered and skim any foam that forms in the first minute.
- Seasoning"Any seasoning which may be preferred" would most likely have meant warm spices: grated nutmeg, cinnamon, a strip of lemon peel, or a clove or two. Note that the recipe specifies grating whole ginger rather than using ground.
- ServingSweeten with sugar, honey or treacle at the end and drink it hot from a mug, strained again if you dislike the sediment. It will thicken as it cools.
Ale-berry is a very old English invalid drink, recorded from the medieval period onward under names such as alebree and aleberry, the second element generally traced to the same root as bree or broth rather than to any fruit. It belongs to a whole family of warm grain-and-drink possets, caudles and gruels that filled the space in a nineteenth-century household between medicine and food, given to the ill, the elderly, women after childbirth and anyone thought to need building up. Cassell's gives the cost as threepence a serving, in an era when a warm, sweetened, faintly alcoholic drink with a little cereal in it was considered genuinely restorative.