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Cider Cup
At the bottom of a large jug put a slice of crumb of bread toasted, grate half a small nutmeg over it, and place on it two or three slices of thin lemon-rind and half a dozen lumps of sugar. Pour over it two wine-glassfuls of sherry, one of brandy, the juice of a lemon, a bottle of soda-water, and, last of all, a quart of cider. Mix well, put a sprig of borage or balm into it, and add a few lumps of pure ice. This should be used as soon as it is made. Time to make, ten minutes. Probable cost, 8d., exclusive of the brandy, sherry, and cider. Sufficient for a two-quart cup.
A cold summer punch of the type Victorian households made by the jugful for garden parties and cricket teas. Nothing here needs cooking; the only real work is getting the proportions and the temperature right.
- Cider means hard ciderIn a British book of this date "cider" normally means the fermented drink, and it was often dry. Sweet unfermented apple juice will make the cup cloyingly sweet, especially alongside six lumps of sugar.
- A wine-glassfulTake it as about 2 fl oz, so the sherry is roughly 4 fl oz and the brandy 2 fl oz. Victorian glasses were much smaller than modern stemware.
- Imperial quartsA quart here is the imperial quart of 40 fl oz, not 32, and the finished "two-quart cup" is about 2.4 US quarts. A bottle of soda-water of the period was a small one, on the order of 6-10 fl oz, nearer a modern split than a full bottle.
- Lumps of sugarA lump was roughly a teaspoon, so half a dozen is about 2 tablespoons. With a dry cider that is about right; taste and hold some back if your cider is off-dry.
- The toasted crumbThe slice of toast is the old flavouring trick of the cup: it sits at the bottom of the jug, absorbs the spirit and gives a faint nutty background. It is not meant to be eaten or stirred to pieces, and it is the first thing a modern maker will be tempted to skip. Skipping it gives a cleaner, thinner drink.
- Lemon rind, not pithPare the rind thinly with a peeler; white pith left on adds bitterness.
- Borage or balmBorage leaves and flowers taste faintly of cucumber and are the classic garnish for English cups; lemon balm is the stated alternative. Mint is the usual modern substitute and changes the character but not the function.
- Ice and timingThe instruction to use it at once is the hinge. Added ice dilutes as it melts and the soda-water goes flat quickly, so build the jug immediately before serving and strain into glasses through a small sieve to catch the rind and toast.
- YieldAbout 2.4 US quarts, which pours eight to ten tumblers. With roughly 4 fl oz of sherry and 2 of brandy across the jug on top of the cider, it is stronger than it tastes.
"Cup" was the standard Victorian name for a chilled, diluted, aromatic punch served from a jug rather than a bowl: cider cup, claret cup, champagne cup, and a cider-and-borage version. Cassell's costing tells the story of who drank it -- eightpence for the bread, sugar, nutmeg, lemon and soda-water, with the cider, sherry and brandy priced separately, excluded from the reckoning. The toasted crumb at the bottom of the jug is a survival from much older English drinks, where spiced ale and cider were poured over toast or roasted apples; the word "toast" for a drinking salute is traditionally traced to exactly that practice, though the derivation is not settled. Borage, meanwhile, had a long reputation as a cheering herb and was grown in kitchen gardens for use in drinks of this kind, a habit it kept afterwards in the Pimm's jug.