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Orangeade No. 1
1 Glass 1 orange 1/2 cup boiling water 1 tablespoon sugar 1/2 slice orange Prepare as for lemonade. If orange is not acid, add a little lemon juice.
A single-glass formula from the era when drinks were built to order rather than by the pitcher. The whole method hangs on a cross-reference the modern reader no longer has in front of them.
- "Prepare as for lemonade"In books of this type that generally means dissolving the sugar in the boiling water to make a quick syrup, adding the strained juice, then filling the glass with cold water and ice, though the recipe itself lists neither cold water nor ice. Dissolving first is the point — sugar stirred into cold juice settles at the bottom and the last mouthful is syrup.
- Yield per orangeA medium orange gives roughly 1/4 to 1/3 cup of juice. With 1/2 cup water plus ice, this fills one 8 oz glass and no more; multiply the whole line for a pitcher.
- SugarOne tablespoon per glass is on the sweet side for many modern oranges, so taste before adding all of it; a half tablespoon is often enough.
- "If orange is not acid"Orange juice on its own can taste flat in a long drink, and the lemon supplies acid to sharpen it. The recipe says only "a little"; a teaspoon or two per glass is a reasonable starting point.
- TemperatureBoiling water in a cold drink is only there to melt sugar. Let the syrup cool, or pour it over plenty of ice, or the juice will taste cooked and lose its brightness.
- The half sliceA half wheel of orange, with nothing in the text to say whether it sits in the drink or on the rim. Modern citrus is often waxed and may be treated with fungicide; scrub it if the peel is going into the drink.
- StrainingNothing here says to strain, but putting pulp and seeds through a fine sieve gives a cleaner glass.
Orangeade sat beside lemonade in many American household manuals from the late nineteenth century onward, and both were classed less as treats than as useful drinks: cooling in summer, standard fare for invalids and the sickroom, and a respectable non-alcoholic option at a time when temperance sentiment shaped what appeared on a table. The recipe is built around one glass and one fruit, listed as "No. 1" with variants to follow. Its appearance in a meatless cookbook is a reminder that such books were rarely narrow vegetarian tracts; they aimed to supply a full household repertoire, beverages and desserts included, so that a family cooking without meat would not need a second book on the shelf.