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Ginger Cup
Into a preserving kettle, containing one quart of boiling water, put one half pound of Sultana raisins, and one cup of currants; steep for half an hour, and then strain through a fine sieve. When cold add two cups of sugar, the juice of four oranges and two lemons, one half cup of preserved ginger, one teaspoonful of almond extract, three tablespoonfuls of grated cocoanut, and one half teaspoonful of ground cinnamon. Mix thoroughly and put in the ice box until chilled. Then pour in one quart of ice-cold ginger ale, and serve in glasses half full of cracked ice.
A temperance punch built on a dried-fruit infusion rather than a spirit base. The hinge is timing: everything but the ginger ale is made ahead and chilled hard, and the ginger ale goes in at the moment of serving.
- Preserving kettleThis means a wide, deep pot of a few quarts' capacity — in this period usually enamelled iron or copper kept for jam. Any large non-reactive saucepan works; avoid bare aluminum, since the juice of four oranges and two lemons goes in later.
- CurrantsDried Zante currants, the small black raisin, not fresh red currants. They are sold near the raisins and are what the book assumes.
- Preserved gingerStem ginger in heavy syrup, sold in jars. Chop it fine and include a little of the syrup; crystallized ginger can stand in, but it is drier and sweeter. This is not fresh ginger root.
- StrainingPress the fruit against the sieve to get the liquid out, then discard the pulp; after half an hour's steeping most of the flavor is in the water, though the fruit is not wholly spent.
- SugarTwo cups into roughly a quart of infusion is very sweet by current taste, and the ginger ale adds more. Start with one cup, taste after the citrus goes in, and add from there.
- Almond extractA full teaspoon of modern extract will dominate everything else. A quarter teaspoon is closer to the intended background note.
- CoconutGrated coconut will not dissolve; it floats and catches in the teeth. Either strain it out with the fruit or accept it as texture, as the original clearly does.
- YieldCloser to three quarts once the ginger ale is in, or ten to twelve glasses over cracked ice. Chill the base right through, as the recipe directs, so the ginger ale is not warmed and flattened.
Books of this kind are often associated with the long American temperance campaign that ended in national Prohibition in 1920: collections of punches, cups and shrubs written to give a hostess something to pour that was not wine. The word cup is borrowed straight from the alcoholic tradition — claret cup, cider cup — where it meant a chilled, diluted, fruit-laden drink served from a bowl or pitcher, and here the ginger ale takes the place of the wine and soda. Ginger ale itself was a natural substitute, and its sharpness gave a fruit syrup enough bite to feel like a grown-up drink. The raisins, currants, dried coconut and jarred preserved ginger are the pantry of a well-stocked household of the period, shelf-stable goods that could be had year-round when fresh fruit could not.