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Quick Lemonade
2 lemons 4 tablespoons sugar 1 quart water Cracked ice Wash the lemons and squeeze the juice; mix thoroughly with the sugar, and when the sugar is dissolved add the water and ice, and a little fresh fruit or slices of lemon if convenient.
A plain proportioned lemonade that needs almost no translation, though the balance is worth adjusting to modern palates and modern lemons.
- YieldOne quart plus ice serves four in tumblers, or two tall glasses. Scale by keeping the ratio of one lemon and two tablespoons sugar to each pint of water.
- SweetnessFour tablespoons of sugar to a quart is restrained by current standards. Taste after mixing and add sugar a spoonful at a time.
- Dissolve the sugar firstThis is the hinge of the method. Sugar dissolves only slowly in cold water, so it goes into the neat juice and is stirred until the grit is gone before any water is added. A tablespoon of hot water in the juice speeds it up.
- Washing the lemonsThe instruction is not idle: it matters if you are also using slices as garnish, and commercially sold lemons are often wax-coated. Scrub under warm water.
- Cracked iceIce was sold in blocks and broken up at home. Cracked ice chills faster than cubes because of the surface area, but it also dilutes faster; if the lemonade is to sit, chill it in the refrigerator and add ice per glass.
- "A little fresh fruit"Sliced strawberries, raspberries or orange rounds all suit. Add them at the last moment so they do not go pale and soft in the acid.
- Why it appears under canningKeeping -- It will not keep more than a day; the juice loses its freshness quickly once cut.
Lemonade in American household books of this period sits at the junction of two traditions: the sweetened fruit shrubs and syrups that could be bottled and kept, and the fresh drink mixed on the spot. What makes the version here "quick" is precisely that it skips the syrup stage. The economy of it reflects the arrival of cheaper ice and cheaper citrus by rail: lemons shipped from California and Sicily and commercial ice delivery had, by the early twentieth century, put a cold acid drink within reach of ordinary kitchens in summer, where a generation earlier it had been closer to a luxury or a sickroom cordial. Lemonade's long association with invalid cookery, where it was recommended for fevers, is part of why it turns up in general household manuals as often as in entertaining chapters.