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Orange Brandy
Take the thin rinds of six Seville oranges. Put them into a stone jar, and pour over them half a pint of the strained juice of the oranges and two quarts of French brandy. Let them remain for three days, then add a pound and a quarter of leaf sugar--broken, not powdered--and stir the liquid until the sugar is dissolved; let it stand until the next day, strain through filtering paper until quite clear, pour it into bottles, and cork securely; the longer orange brandy is kept the better it is. This liqueur should be made in March. Probable cost, 1s., exclusive of the brandy. Sufficient for five pints of orange brandy.
A steeped cordial rather than anything cooked, so the only real skills involved are peeling cleanly and being patient. The measurements are British imperial and the sugar name has drifted.
- Seville oranges, and why MarchSevilles are the bitter marmalade orange, in season in Britain from roughly January to early March. The March instruction most likely reflects the tail of that season; a sweet orange will not give the same aromatic bitterness, though other sour oranges come closer.
- "Thin rinds"This means the coloured zest only, taken off with a peeler or sharp knife. Any white pith carried over turns the finished liqueur harshly bitter over the weeks it sits.
- Imperial measuresHalf a pint of juice is 10 imperial fl oz, about 285 ml, which six Sevilles will roughly give. Two quarts of brandy is 80 imperial fl oz, about 2.27 litres — a shade over three 750 ml bottles.
- "Leaf sugar"Almost certainly loaf sugar, the hard cone or lump sugar of the period. Broken lump sugar dissolves slowly and evenly in spirit; use granulated or preserving sugar, 1 lb 4 oz, about 565 g, and stir until no grit remains at the bottom.
- Stone jarA glazed earthenware crock with a close cover. A large glass jar with a tight lid does the same job and lets you see when the sugar has gone.
- Filtering paperA coffee filter or a double thickness of muslin. Orange oil and sugar throw a haze; expect to filter twice, and expect it to be slow — do not force it through.
- French brandyA plain young cognac or armagnac, at the usual modern 40% ABV, is a workable stand-in, though period brandy was often sold stronger. Nothing aged or expensive: the citrus oil will bury it.
- Yield and keepingFive imperial pints, about 2.8 litres. Corked and kept cool and dark it improves for a year or more, the raw spirit edge softening into the peel.
Orange brandy belongs to the long English tradition of household cordials and ratafias — spirits infused at home with fruit, kernels or spices, made in the brief window when the fruit was available and laid down for later. The Seville orange arrived in Britain in quantity each winter from Spain, and the same few weeks that produced the year's marmalade produced orange wine, orange shrub and this. Cassell's New Dictionary of Cookery, a vast late-Victorian compendium aimed at middle-class households, still costs the recipe out to the penny "exclusive of the brandy" — an honest admission that the spirit, subject to duty, was by far the expensive part.