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Lemonade, Economical
Slice four fresh lemons, and be careful to remove the pips and the thick white skin. Put them, with the rind, into a jug, add a quarter of a pound of loaf sugar, and pour upon them a quart of boiling water. Cover closely, and when the lemonade is cold, it is ready for use. Probable cost, 6d. Sufficient for three pints of lemonade. Or, prepare two lemons as above, and put them into a jug with six ounces of moist sugar and an ounce of cream of tartar. Pour two quarts of boiling water upon them, and let the liquid stand until cold. Time, two hours to infuse. Probable cost, 5d. Sufficient for five pints of lemonade.
Two versions of a steeped lemonade, both relying on boiling water to pull flavour from the peel rather than on juicing. The pith is the thing that will spoil it.
- Remove the white pith properlyThe instruction to take off "the thick white skin" is the hinge of the recipe. Because the slices sit in hot water until the jug is cold (two hours in the second version), any pith left on will leach bitterness through the whole jug. Pare the zest off in strips, cut away and discard the pith, then slice the flesh.
- Imperial measuresA British quart is 40 fl oz, so the first version uses about 5 US cups of water and the second about 10. The stated yields (three pints, five pints) are imperial pints of 20 fl oz.
- Loaf sugar and moist sugarLoaf sugar was refined white sugar broken from a cone; use ordinary granulated. Moist sugar is unrefined light brown sugar, damper and slightly molasses-flavoured, which is why the second version tastes fuller.
- Cream of tartarPotassium bitartrate, sold in any baking aisle. An ounce (about 3 tablespoons) to two quarts is a large dose by modern taste and gives a distinct dry tartness; it was there to sharpen a drink made from only two lemons. Half that amount is closer to modern palates.
- TimingTwo hours to infuse is a minimum; the recipe really wants the jug left until fully cold, which takes longer in a covered vessel. Prolonged steeping can draw bitterness from the rind even when the pith is removed.
- Strain before servingThe original leaves the slices in. Strain into a clean jug once cold, or the drink keeps getting more bitter and the softened peel is unpleasant in the glass.
- KeepingThere is no preservative here beyond sugar and acid. Refrigerate and drink within two or three days.
- Cost note"Probable cost, 6d." is sixpence in pre-decimal currency, a period price guide of no practical use now beyond showing this was meant as the cheap option.
This was the kind of drink made in a jug on the kitchen table rather than bought as a bottled product. The word lemonade came into English from French limonade in the seventeenth century and long referred to a still rather than carbonated drink, variously made from lemon juice or from sliced lemons steeped in sweetened water; fizzy commercial lemonade is a later development and is why British "lemonade" and American "lemonade" still mean different things. The second version, with cream of tartar standing in for two of the four lemons, shows the economy the title promises. Cream of tartar is a by-product of winemaking, cheap and shelf-stable, and Victorian household books used it freely to supply acidity where fresh fruit was dear or out of season.