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Ale Sangaree
Put into a small jug half a pint of boiling hot ale, add a tea-spoonful of icing sugar. Mix well, serve in a tumbler, and dust with grated nutmeg. This may also be made as a summer drink, by putting the ale in cold, with a small lump of ice. Probable cost, 3d.
A two-ingredient warmer that lives or dies on the ale you choose and on not actually boiling it.
- Do not boil the aleThe recipe says "boiling hot", but a rolling boil drives off the carbonation and volatile malt aroma. Heat it only to steaming and pull it off before it boils.
- Half a pintCassell's is British, so this is half an imperial pint: 10 fl oz, about 285 ml, or roughly 1¼ US cups. That is one generous tumbler, not two.
- Icing sugarPowdered or confectioners' sugar in American terms. It dissolves quickly without heat, which suits a drink mixed in the jug; modern versions contain a little cornstarch, which is harmless here but may very slightly cloud the glass.
- Which aleThe recipe says only "ale"; a malty mild, brown ale or dark bitter suits it best. Hop bitterness sharpens unpleasantly with heat, so a modern IPA or heavily dry-hopped pale ale makes a harsh, resinous drink.
- NutmegGrate it over the surface at the table. Pre-ground nutmeg has lost most of its aroma and the dusting is the whole finish of the drink.
- The cold versionWith ice, this is simply sweetened cold ale. Chill the ale first rather than relying on the ice, which otherwise waters it down before it is cold.
- The tumblerA heatproof glass or a thick-walled mug; a thin modern tumbler filled with near-simmering liquid can crack. Warm the vessel with hot water first and pour it out.
- Probable cost, 3dThreepence, a costing Cassell's gives for many of its entries for household budgeting. It signals a cheap drink.
Sangaree is the English mangling of the Spanish sangría, and it reached Britain by way of the West Indies in the eighteenth century, where it usually meant wine or Madeira sweetened, watered, and dusted with nutmeg. British drinkers applied the name to whatever they had, and by the Victorian period a porter or ale sangaree was the household version of the thing: no wine, no spirit, just a warmed glass of beer with sugar and spice. It belongs to the same family as purl, flip and mulled ale, drinks that made cheap beer palatable and comforting in cold rooms.