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COOL CUP (another way) (Take three parts of good)
Take three parts of good lemonade and one of sherry or Madeira, add three or four lumps of ice, and serve.
A Victorian summer "cup" in its shortest possible form. The only decisions left to the cook are what kind of lemonade and what kind of fortified wine, and both matter more than the brevity suggests.
- What "lemonade" means hereIn a British book of this date lemonade is usually still: lemon juice, sugar and water, sweetened to taste. Carbonated lemonade existed but would have been named as aerated or soda lemonade. Still, freshly squeezed lemonade gives the drink the acidity the wine needs; commercial sparkling lemonade makes something much sweeter and thinner.
- Proportions in practiceThree to one by volume works out at 15 fl oz lemonade to 5 fl oz sherry per imperial pint — roughly a large jug of lemonade to a generous cup of wine. With sherry or Madeira at around 17-20% that puts the finished cup somewhere near 4-5% before the ice melts, in the region of a shandy.
- Which sherry or MadeiraSweet cream sherry or a sweet Malmsey Madeira will fight the sugar in the lemonade. A dry or medium sherry (fino, amontillado) or a Sercial Madeira keeps it refreshing. If the only bottle to hand is sweet, cut the sugar in the lemonade back.
- "Three or four lumps of ice"Victorian ice came as chipped or sawn lumps from a block, considerably larger than a modern cube. Use two or three large cubes per glass, or a single big piece in the jug, so the cup chills without watering down as fast as small cubes do.
- YieldThe original gives no quantity at all. As a working batch, 1 pint (2 cups) still lemonade to 2/3 cup sherry or Madeira serves three to four in small glasses.
- Worth addingNothing else is required, but recipes in this family often finish with a strip of cucumber peel, a sprig of borage or mint, and a thin slice of lemon. Any of them lifts a two-ingredient drink considerably.
- Make it just before servingIce left standing in the jug will dilute the cup. Chill the components separately and combine at the table.
The "cup" was one of the fixtures of Victorian summer hospitality: a wine or cider base lengthened with something cold and acidic, served from a jug at picnics, croquet parties, race meetings and after-dinner in hot weather. Claret cup, cider cup and champagne cup all appear in books of this period, and this one — headed simply COOL CUP (another way) — is among the simplest of them. The choice of sherry or Madeira reflects what a well-stocked British household actually kept open; both were everyday wines then in a way that has not survived, drunk before dinner and used freely in cooking. Cups were assembled by proportion and taste, not weighed, and any cook was expected to adjust the sweetening to the lemons in hand.