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STRAWBERRY WATER (a refreshing summer drink)
Take half a pound of finely-flavoured strawberries. Bruise them well in a basin with a wooden spoon, and mix with them four table-spoonfuls of finely-powdered sugar and a quarter of a pint of cold water. Rub them through a fine sieve, and filter what passes through the sieve till it is clear and bright. Wash the dregs in the sieve with a little cold water to prevent waste. Add the strained juice of half a lemon and a pint of cold water to the liquor, and put it in ice or in a cool place till wanted. Time, about an hour to prepare. Probable cost, 3d. per pint. Sufficient for about a quart of water.
A straightforward fruit cordial that depends entirely on the fruit: no heat is applied, so nothing improves flavour that the strawberries do not already have.
- Quantities in modern termsHalf a pound of strawberries is about 225 g. A quarter-pint is 5 fl oz (about 150 ml) in British measure, a pint 20 fl oz (about 570 ml).
- Use fully ripe fruit"Finely-flavoured" is the hinge of the recipe. Underripe or watery supermarket berries give a pale, thin drink; late-season or wild-flavoured fruit at full ripeness is what makes it worth doing.
- The sugarFour tablespoons of finely-powdered sugar is caster or icing sugar, chosen because it dissolves cold. Granulated will work if you let the mash stand and stir it, but expect grittiness if you rush.
- About the filteringRubbing through a fine sieve and then filtering through muslin or a coffee filter gives the clear, bright liquid the book wants. Skip it and you have a cloudy crushed-strawberry drink, which tastes the same but is not what is described.
- Washing the dregsRinsing the pulp with a little extra water pulls out remaining juice and colour, but it also dilutes. Count that water as part of the total liquid rather than adding it on top.
- Yield and servingThe finished quantity is about a quart, roughly 1.1 litres, enough for four to six tall glasses over ice. It is unsweetened by modern soft-drink standards, so taste before serving and add sugar syrup if you want it fuller.
- KeepingWith no cooking and no preservative, this is a same-day drink. Refrigerated it holds its colour and flavour for a few hours, then browns and flattens.
Fruit "waters" of this kind sit between the medieval fruit syrup and the modern squash: crushed fruit, sugar, a little acid from lemon, and enough water to make it drinkable at once. The inclusion of a cost per pint is typical of the book's habit of pricing every item for a household running to a budget. The insistence on filtering until "clear and bright" reflects Victorian table standards, where a clouded glass was considered a fault in the cook rather than a sign of honest fruit. Ice "or a cool place" is a reminder that domestic ice was generally said to be bought in blocks and stored in an ice chest rather than made at home.