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Fixed Oils, Etc
mix them together, and pour the essence of lemon | Begin by washing the oil with spring-water; upon them, by a few drops at a time, stirring the mixture after each addition, till the whole is added; then mix them thoroughly, and divide it into 12 equal parts, wrapping each up separately in a piece of white paper. When wanted for use, it is only necessary to dissolve it in a tumbler of cold water, and fine lemonade will be obtained, containing the flavor of the juice and peel of the lemon, and ready sweetened.
This is the tail end of a receipt for portable lemonade powder, and the page has been mangled in printing: a clause from the neighbouring entry on fixed oils ("Begin by washing the oil with spring-water") has been dropped into the middle of the first line. The ingredient list, which stood in the missing portion, is gone, so what survives is the method only.
- What is missingThe surviving text begins mid-sentence at "mix them together". The two things being mixed are almost certainly finely powdered loaf sugar and a dry acid; the essence of lemon is then added drop by drop. Quantities are nowhere on the page, so any figure would be a guess.
- The usual proportionsPeriod portable-lemonade receipts generally pair about a pound of powdered sugar with a fraction of an ounce of citric or tartaric acid and a small number of drops of essence of lemon, though the figures vary from book to book. Treat that as context for reading the entry, not as a reconstruction of this one.
- Essence of lemonThis means the aromatic oil of the peel, in this period usually either the pressed oil itself or that oil dissolved in spirit; it is not a water-based extract. It is very concentrated, which is likely why the receipt insists on a few drops at a time with stirring between each, so that the oil is distributed through the powder rather than wetting one part of it.
- Acid, not juiceThe "flavor of the juice" comes from crystalline citric or tartaric acid, both still sold, citric acid usually in the canning aisle. Tartaric is sharper and slightly astringent; citric is the closer match to lemon juice.
- Everything must be bone drySugar and acid both draw water. Grind the sugar to a true powder, work in a dry room, and wrap promptly. Damp powder sets into a solid lump within days.
- The paper packetsTwelve papers means twelve tumblers, one glass each, though the recipe never says how large a tumbler it has in mind. Plain white paper was the period's answer to a single-serve sachet; a small zip bag or a screw-top jar does the same job and keeps moisture out better.
- DissolvingCold water is specified and it is worth following, since heat drives off the volatile lemon oil. Stir until the acid has fully gone into solution, or the last mouthful will be unpleasantly sharp.
Portable lemonade powders belong to the same impulse as portable soup, an eighteenth-century article, and pemmican: reduce a perishable thing to a dry, packable form for travellers, ships and campaigns. Once citric and tartaric acid became cheap industrial articles, apparently in the first half of the 1800s, the acidity of lemon juice could be separated from the fruit entirely, and the aroma supplied by a few drops of pressed peel oil, so a box of paper packets replaced a crate of lemons that would rot in a month. Mackenzie's Ten Thousand Receipts is a compendium of trade formulas as much as a cookbook, which is why this entry sits under a heading reading "Fixed Oils, Etc" rather than in a chapter on drinks. The garbled first line is a good reminder of what these dense double-column reference books were like to set in type, and of how much care is needed reading them.