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Blackberry Syrup
Make according to the recipe for raspberry syrup.
Raspberry Syrup No. 1 Mash four quarts of red raspberries, and add one and one half pints of water, and boil for five minutes. Strain through a jelly bag. To four cups of juice add one cup of sugar. Put only half the juice with all the sugar, and boil for five minutes, then add the rest of the juice, and bring to the boiling point. Skim thoroughly and pour into sterilized jars to overflowing, and seal tightly.
Raspberry Syrup No. 2.
One half ounce essence of raspberry, three fourths of an ounce of tartaric acid, and four quarts of plain syrup.
Orange Syrup No. 1.
Grate the rind of six oranges and of one lemon, and add to the juice of one dozen oranges and two lemons, and let stand overnight. In the morning take six pounds of sugar and six quarts of water, and after the sugar is dissolved boil for twenty minutes. Skim. When cool add the strained orange and lemon juice. Boil again for ten minutes, and pour into sterilized bottles. Dip corks in sealing wax.
Orange Syrup No. 2.
Add two ounces tincture of orange peel to one pint of plain syrup. Mix well, and bottle.
Lemon Syrup No. 1.
Grate the rinds of six lemons, and add to the juice of twelve lemons, and let stand overnight. Make a syrup of six pounds of sugar and six quarts of boiling water. Boil for twenty minutes, and when cool, and the strained lemon juice. Bottle and seal. Serve with an equal quantity of cold water. Lemon Syrup No. 2.
Make a thick syrup by boiling two pounds of loaf sugar with one and one half cups of water. Add the juice of four lemons and one half ounce of citric acid, and bottle.
Lemon Syrup No. 3 Take off the rind of one lemon in thin fine strips, and place them in a jug. Remove the whole of the white pith, slice the lemon thinly, put it into the jug with one pound of loaf sugar and one half an ounce of tartaric acid. Pour in one pint of boiling water, and stir until the sugar is dissolved. When quite cold, strain the syrup into a bottle and cork tightly. A pleasant drink may be made by adding one part of this syrup to six parts of water.
The blackberry entry is a cross-reference: it sends you to Raspberry Syrup No. 1 and expects you to swap the fruit. The block of syrups printed under it is a soda-fountain kit, and the two numbered versions of each are doing different jobs — No. 1 is made from fruit, No. 2 from bottled essence and acid.
- The substitution, stated plainlyFor blackberry syrup use 4 quarts of blackberries, 1 1/2 pints (3 cups) water, boil five minutes, strain, then sugar as directed. Blackberries are more tannic than raspberries and, depending on ripeness, may set and cloud more; strain slowly and do not press the bag if you want a clear syrup.
- The sugar ratio is the hingeOne cup of sugar to four cups of juice is a lightly sweetened syrup by any standard — a soda fountain syrup usually ran two parts sugar to one part water. At this ratio the sugar is not preserving anything, so treat the finished bottles as a fresh product: refrigerate and use within two or three weeks, or freeze. If you want it shelf-stable, use a current water-bath canning procedure with its own tested timings.
- Sterilised jars, sealing wax, corksFilling to overflowing and sealing hot was the period's whole method. It is not a substitute for processing, and a cork dipped in wax is a splash guard rather than a seal. Modern two-piece lids or clean bottles kept cold are the sensible reading.
- Quantities in berriesFour quarts of raspberries or blackberries is roughly 5 to 5 1/2 lb. With the added water it will give you several quarts of strained juice, and the recipe's sugar is scaled per four cups of juice, so measure the juice and sweeten in that proportion rather than assuming a fixed yield. Yield varies more with fruit ripeness than with technique.
- "Plain syrup"In these drink books plain syrup means simple syrup, and at the fountain that meant a heavy one: about 2 parts sugar dissolved in 1 part water by weight. Four quarts of it is a commercial batch; scale the essence and acid down proportionally if you make less.
- Essence and acid versionsTartaric and citric acid are still sold for baking and brewing and are near enough interchangeable here by weight. Half an ounce is roughly 3 teaspoons of citric acid -- enough to make a syrup sharply tart, so add it in stages and taste. "Tincture of orange peel" was an alcohol extract from the druggist; orange extract is the nearest current equivalent, used far more sparingly.
- Loaf sugarLoaf or lump sugar was simply refined white sugar sold in cones or cubes, prized because it was cleaner than the grocer's barrel sugar. Ordinary granulated sugar is the direct replacement, weight for weight.
- ServingThe book's own guide is one part syrup to six parts water for the last lemon syrup, and equal parts for Lemon Syrup No. 1 — a measure of how differently concentrated these are. For the blackberry syrup, start at about one part syrup to five of cold or sparkling water.
On Uncle Sam's Water Wagon belongs to the wave of non-alcoholic drink books published as national prohibition arrived in the United States at the end of the 1910s — the title plays on "on the water wagon," the phrase generally credited with giving us "falling off the wagon." Books like this took their vocabulary from the drugstore soda fountain, and the paired syrups read as two routes to the same drink: a household version made from fruit in season, and a dispenser's version built from bottled essence, acid and a tub of plain syrup. Fruit syrups themselves are much older than the temperance movement; raspberry vinegar and raspberry syrup were standard summer sickroom drinks through the nineteenth century, and blackberry in particular had a long reputation as a remedy for looseness of the bowels.