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Milk Sugared, or Lait Sucre
A cold drink for evening entertainments, much used for children in France, and made by simply boiling milk with lemon-rind and sugar. When the flavour of lemon is gained, it is allowed to cool, and is ready for use.
The original gives no quantities at all, which is typical of the reference entries in Cassell's — the technique was assumed to be common knowledge. What follows fills in the numbers and the two or three details that decide whether it tastes of lemon or of scorched milk.
- Working proportionsFor 1 quart (about 1 litre) of whole milk, use the pared rind of one lemon and 3 to 4 tablespoons of sugar. That is on the lightly sweetened side; the original is a children's drink and was probably sweeter.
- Rind, not juicePare the zest off in wide strips with a peeler and leave the white pith behind, which turns bitter on boiling. Never add lemon juice: the acid will curdle the milk instantly and the drink is spoiled.
- Boiling milkBring it up slowly over moderate heat, stirring, and pull it off as soon as it rises. Milk catches on the bottom of a thin pan very quickly; a heavy saucepan and a low flame are the whole trick.
- How long to infuse"When the flavour of lemon is gained" means roughly ten to fifteen minutes of steeping off the heat, covered. Taste it. Longer infusion in hot milk pulls out the resinous notes of the peel.
- Strain and chillStrain out the rind before cooling, and cool the milk quickly rather than leaving it standing warm on the side, as a Victorian larder would have allowed. Cover and refrigerate; drink within two days.
- ServingA quart gives four to six glasses. It is served plain and cold, not over ice, which dilutes it; a grating of nutmeg on top is a period-appropriate addition.
Lait sucré is exactly what it says — sweetened milk — and the entry itself describes it as a cold drink for evening entertainments rather than as a dessert. Flavouring milk or cream with lemon peel is one of the oldest moves in European cookery, akin to the infusions behind custards, and it survives in the lemon-peel infusions of Italian and Spanish milk puddings. English cookery writing of the period often invoked French domestic practice, and milk was regarded as the proper drink for the nursery; a little sugar and aromatic peel made boiled milk, with its cooked flavour, palatable. Heating milk was also widely advised in the later 1800s as protection against the diseases carried by an untrustworthy urban milk supply, though the entry gives no such reason for boiling.