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Ginger Syrup
Break three-quarters of a pound of ginger-root into small pieces. Boil it gently with four quarts of water, and the thin rind of a lemon, until the water is reduced one-half. Strain, and boil again with five pounds of loaf sugar. Remove the scum carefully till no more rises; and when the syrup is cold, bottle it for use. Time, five hours. Probable cost, 2s. 8d. Sufficient for three quarts of syrup.
A heavy sugar syrup flavoured by long extraction rather than infusion. The measurements are imperial and the sugar load is close to saturation, so both need translating before you start.
- Imperial quartsA British quart is 40 fl oz, so four quarts is about 4.5 litres (roughly 19 US cups). Reduced by half you are left with a little over 2 litres of ginger decoction.
- Ginger rootThree-quarters of a pound is about 340 g of dried ginger root, the hard knobbly kind sold whole by weight in Victorian grocers. Fresh ginger works but gives a brighter, less resinous flavour; bruise it rather than trying to snap it, and expect to simmer it in a stockpot to hold the volume.
- Loaf sugarLoaf sugar was refined white sugar sold in a cone and broken up as needed. Ordinary granulated sugar is the direct substitute, weight for weight.
- The hinge: dissolve before it boilsFive pounds (2.27 kg) of sugar in about two litres of liquid makes a dense syrup, though it stays short of saturation. Stir over low heat until every grain has dissolved before it comes to a boil, and wipe any crystals from the side of the pan, or the finished bottle may throw a sugary sediment.
- SkimmingSkim the scum off as it gathers rather than stirring it back in.
- Five hoursAlmost all of that is the first reduction, and it wants a bare simmer rather than a rolling boil so the liquid does not scorch as it thickens. The second boil with the sugar needs only long enough to clarify, ten to fifteen minutes.
- Bottling and keepingThe recipe says only to bottle when cold. A syrup this sweet resists spoilage, but pour it into scalded bottles, cap tightly and keep it refrigerated; a film of mould on the surface means the batch is done.
- Using itThree quarts is a great deal. Such syrups were generally diluted for use: a spoonful in hot or soda water, or as a sweetener.
The 'Time / Probable cost / Sufficient for' format is that of Cassell's, and it belongs to an era when ginger was a household remedy as much as a flavouring, a bottled syrup being a convenient form of it: a spoonful in hot water was a common domestic remedy for chills and indigestion, and the same bottle sweetened an invalid's gruel or a glass of soda. Much of the dried root reaching British kitchens came from Jamaica, whose ginger had a long-established reputation for pungency, with West African and East Indian root also on the market at lower prices. The economics are worth reading: at the period's prices the five pounds of refined sugar would have accounted for much of the 2s. 8d., a reminder that falling sugar prices in the later nineteenth century are what made domestic syrups, cordials and jam-making routine rather than a luxury. Boiling a decoction down before sweetening it also echoes contemporary pharmaceutical practice, and the recipe has something of a dispensary formula about it.