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Orange Gin
Take the thin rind of three Seville oranges and one lemon, and put it into a jar with a pint and a half of gin, three-quarters of a pound of barley sugar crushed to powder, and the strained juice of the fruit; cover the jar closely, and leave it for two or three weeks, being careful to shake it well every now and then. Strain the liqueur into bottles, cork these securely, and store for use. Orange gin improves with keeping. Probable cost, exclusive of the spirit, 1s. Sufficient for one quart of orange gin.
A straightforward cold infusion, closer to sloe gin than to anything distilled. The only real work is peeling cleanly and then leaving it alone.
- Imperial measuresA pint and a half here is Imperial, so 30 fl oz, about 850 ml — a little more than a standard 750 ml bottle of gin. The stated yield of a quart is 40 fl oz, roughly 1.1 litres, which accounts for the dissolved sugar and juice.
- Barley sugarA hard boiled sweet sold in twists; the name comes from an older method of boiling the sugar with barley water, though by the Victorian period much commercial barley sugar contained no barley. Crushed to powder it behaves as plain sugar with a faint caramel note; 12 oz (340 g) of caster sugar is the practical stand-in, and demerara comes closer to the colour.
- Seville orangesThese are the bitter marmalade oranges, in the shops for a short winter season, roughly late December to February and sometimes into March. They are sharper and more aromatic than sweet oranges; if you use navels or Valencias, cut the sugar back and add extra lemon juice, or the result is cloying.
- Thin rind means no pithThe hinge of the recipe. Pare the zest with a vegetable peeler or sharp knife and take none of the white pith, which turns the infusion bitter and slightly muddy over three weeks of contact.
- The jarAny clean glass jar with a good seal — Kilner, Mason, or a large preserving jar. Fill it fairly full so there is little air space, and keep it out of direct light, which fades the colour.
- Shaking and timingA shake every day or two for the first week dissolves the sugar; after that, weekly is enough. Two to three weeks is the minimum, and the peel is best removed at the end of that window even if you intend to age the gin longer.
- Straining and keepingStrain through a fine sieve lined with muslin or a coffee filter; the juice throws a haze and pulp that will otherwise settle out in the bottle. Sealed and stored cool, it keeps indefinitely and does genuinely mellow over six months to a year.
- Cost noteThe "probable cost, exclusive of the spirit, 1s" prices up the fruit and sugar only; the cost of the gin is left out, as spirit prices varied.
Fruit-steeped spirits were a fixture of the Victorian and Edwardian store cupboard: sloe gin, damson gin, cherry brandy, orange and lemon gins, all made by the same logic of peel or fruit plus sugar plus a bought bottle of spirit, left in a jar until the pantry did the work. They filled the place a commercial liqueur would fill now. The choice of Seville oranges ties this recipe to the short mid-winter season when the bitter fruit arrived from Spain.