Negus, to Make
INGREDIENTS. -To every pint of port wine allow 1 quart of boiling water, lb. of sugar, 1 lemon, grated nutmeg to taste. AVERAGE COST, 6d. per pint.
As this beverage is more usually drunk at children's parties than at any other, the wine need not be very old or expensive for the purpose, a new fruity wine answering very well for it. Put the wine into a jug, rub some lumps of sugar (equal to 1/4 lb.) on the lemon-rind until all the yellow part of the skin is absorbed, then squeeze the juice and strain it. Add the sugar and lemon-juice to the port-wine, with the grated nutmeg; pour over it the boiling water, cover the jug, and, when the beverage has cooled a little, it will be fit for use. Negus may also be made of sherry, or any other sweet white wine, but is more usually made of port than of any other beverage.
Nesselrode Pudding. (An Iced Pudding; CAREME's Recipe.) - INGREDIENTS.-40 chestnuts, 1 lb. of sugar, flavouring of vanilla, 1 pint of cream, the yolks of 12 eggs, 1 glass of Maraschino, 1 oz. of candied citron, 2 oz. of currants, 2 oz. of stoned raisins, 1/2 pint of whipped cream, 3 eggs.
AVERAGE COST, 4s.
Blanch the chestnuts in the boiling water, remove the husks, and pound them in a mortar until perfectly smooth, adding a few spoonfuls of syrup. Then rub them through a fine sieve and mix them in a basin with a pint of syrup made from 1 lb. of sugar, clarified and flavoured with vanilla, 1 pint of cream and the yolks of 12 eggs. Set this mixture over a slow fire, stirring it without ceasing, and, just as it begins to boil, take it off and pass it through a tammy. When it is cold, put it into a freezing-pot, adding the Maraschino, and make the mixture set; then add the sliced citron, the currants and stoned raisins (these two latter should be soaked the day previously in Maraschino and sugar pounded with vanilla); the whole thus mingled, add a plateful of whipped cream mixed with the whites of 3 eggs, beaten to a froth with a little syrup. When the A NOUGATS À LA CREME. A pudding is perfectly frozen, put it into a pine-apple-shaped mould; close the lid, place it again in the freezing-pan, covered over with pounded ice and saltpetre, and let it remain until required for table; then turn the pudding out, and serve.
TIME. hour to freeze the mixture.
SEASONABLE from October to February.
Negus is a hot spiced wine punch, and the method is simply an infusion: nothing is cooked, so the only skills involved are the sugar rub and getting the dilution right.
- The quantity of sugarThe ingredient line has lost its fraction, but the method supplies it: lumps of sugar equal to 1/4 lb, roughly half a cup. Taste before adding more, since port is already sweet.
- ProportionsOne pint of port to one quart of boiling water is a two-to-one dilution, giving a drink of perhaps 6-7% alcohol. A pint of port makes about six modest cups of finished negus.
- The sugar rubRubbing lump sugar over the lemon rind draws the oil out of the zest into the sugar, which is where most of the flavour lives. A vegetable peeler and a brief steep in the hot liquid does the same job if you have no lump sugar.
- Choice of wineMrs Beeton's advice holds: use an inexpensive young ruby port, not a vintage or tawny. Delicate aged character is wasted once boiling water goes in.
- TemperatureBoiling water poured straight onto wine will drive off some of the aroma. Water just off the boil may give a better-smelling drink; cover the jug as directed to keep what volatiles remain.
- Children's partiesThe original frames this as a nursery drink. It is a diluted alcoholic beverage and should not be served to children. For a non-alcoholic version, a current recipe for spiced grape or berry cordial is the sensible substitute.
- NutmegGrate it over the surface at the last moment. Pre-ground nutmeg loses its volatile oils quickly and tastes dusty in a clear hot drink.
Negus takes its name from Colonel Francis Negus, an early eighteenth-century English officer and courtier who is traditionally credited with the mixture, and by Mrs Beeton's day the word had long since become the generic English term for hot sweetened wine and water. It belonged to the same family of domestic comforts as mulled wine and wine whey: cheap fortified wine, stretched with water, sweetened and spiced, served at parties, after balls, at bedsides and, as the book frankly says, to children. Port dominated because the Methuen treaty of 1703 and a century of war with France had made Portuguese wine the ordinary drink of the English middle classes, and its strength survived dilution in a way that table wine did not.