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Red Liquor to Colour Cordials, Etc
Take half a pound of boiled beetroot sliced, half an ounce of Jamaica pepper in powder, a quarter of an ounce of cinnamon, three ounces of sugar-candy broken small, one pint of pure water, and one pint of proof spirit of wine. Put these ingredients into a stone jar, tie closely over with wet bladder, set it in a pan of hot water for six or seven hours, then let it stand for a week; strain, and filter. Bottle it, and seal the corks; it will keep many months.
This is not a drink but a tinted tincture — a bottled colouring meant to be added by the spoonful to homemade cordials and liqueurs. It behaves like an infusion, and most of the work is waiting.
- Proof spirit of wine"Proof spirit" in British usage was about 57 per cent alcohol by volume, not 100 per cent; the modern stand-in is a neutral grain spirit or a high-strength vodka. It must be a potable spirit — methylated or industrial "spirits of wine" are not food and were never intended for this use.
- Jamaica pepperAllspice, the dried berry of Pimenta dioica. Half an ounce ground is a heavy dose, roughly two to two and a half level tablespoons, and it will dominate the aroma.
- Sugar-candyLarge crystallised sugar, sold now as rock sugar or coffee crystals. Three ounces of ordinary granulated sugar behaves identically once dissolved; the crystals were simply the purer product of the period.
- Wet bladderA cleaned pig's bladder was tied damp over the jar mouth and shrank tight as it dried. Parchment or a doubled sheet of food-grade plastic under string does the same job. Do not substitute a screw lid: warm alcohol in a sealed rigid jar builds pressure.
- The hot-water bathKeep the surrounding water hot but well below a boil — around 150 to 160F is ample for the six or seven hours. Alcohol vapour is flammable, so use a back burner, no open flame nearby, and ventilate the room.
- Beetroot colour is fragileBetanin, the red pigment in beet, degrades with heat, light and time. This liquor will not hold its colour "many months" in a clear bottle on a shelf — store it dark and cool, and expect the tint to dull.
- Straining and filteringStrain off the solids first through muslin, then filter the liquid through a paper coffee filter to get the clarity the recipe implies. Filtering unstrained pulp will simply clog the paper.
- YieldClose to two pints less losses, which is a great deal of colouring. A quarter of the quantities makes a more sensible household batch.
Cassell's belongs to the era when a well-run kitchen expected to tint its own confectionery and cordials, and the standard reds were cochineal — ground scale insects — and beetroot. Beet was the cheaper and more domestic option, and it arrives here bound up in spirit and spice so that it keeps, since the plain juice sours and fades quickly. It is a stock preparation rather than a dish: something made once and drawn on all season, in the same spirit as a bottled caramel or a jar of spinach green. The heavy hand with allspice and cinnamon is a reminder that Victorian colourings were rarely neutral; they were expected to flavour as well as tint, which is why the finished liquor was reserved for spiced cordials and not for anything delicate. Synthetic aniline dyes were coming into commercial confectionery use in this period, and household recipes of this kind gradually fell away.