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Royal Strawberry Acid
Dissolve two ounces citric acid in one quart spring water, which pour over three pounds ripe strawberries. After standing twenty-four hours, drain the liquor off, and pour it over three pounds more of strawberries. Let it stand twenty-four hours more, and again drain the liquor off: Add to the liquor its own weight of sugar. Boil three or four minutes, put in cool bottles, cork lightly for three days, then cork tightly and seal.--Mrs. G.
This is a fruit shrub — a sweetened acid syrup meant to be diluted with cold water as a summer drink, not a preserve to spoon over cake. The double steeping is the whole point: the same quart of acidulated water is used twice so that six pounds of berries flavour a single quart of liquid.
- The acidTwo ounces of citric acid is roughly 1/4 cup of the granular powder sold today for canning and cheesemaking, essentially the same substance, though nineteenth-century crystals varied in purity.
- Spring waterLikely called for as clean, soft water in preference to cistern or well water; any filtered or bottled water does the job.
- Sugar by weight, not cup"Its own weight of sugar" means you must actually weigh the drained liquor. A quart of this syrup runs roughly 2 lb, so expect about 2 lb of sugar — but weigh, since you will lose liquid to the berries.
- Do not squeeze the fruitDrain, do not press. Pressed strawberry pulp will cloud the syrup and is hard to clear afterwards. A jelly bag or damp muslin left to drip is the usual method.
- Keep the boil shortThree or four minutes is deliberate. Longer cooking drives off the fresh strawberry aroma and starts to push the syrup toward jelly consistency, which is not what this is.
- Why cork lightly firstThe three loose days probably let any residual fermentation vent instead of building pressure behind a tight cork. Modern practice is simpler and safer: fill clean jars, cool, and refrigerate with the lids on loosely for a few days before sealing.
- StorageThe recipe's sealed bottle would have been kept in a cool larder or cellar. Treat this as a refrigerator syrup, good for a month or two, and discard it at the first sign of mould or a yeasty smell.
- ServingAt one to two tablespoons in a tall glass of cold or sparkling water, a quart of syrup makes roughly thirty to sixty drinks. It also stands up well to soda and to spirits.
Fruit "acids" were a standard summer resource in Southern and English households before commercial soft drinks, and recipes for raspberry acid, currant acid and strawberry acid appear in nineteenth-century cookbooks. The citric acid drew juice and colour out of the fruit and acted as both preservative and sharpener, in place of lemons. Housekeeping in Old Virginia, edited by Marion Cabell Tyree and published in the late 1870s, was assembled from contributions by Virginia housekeepers, generally credited by initial — hence "Mrs. G." — and its drinks chapter contains a number of these acid syrups and cordials.