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Raspberry Vinegar and Water
1243. No draught is more agreeable to a feverish patient than a dessert-spoonful of raspberry vinegar mixed in a tumbler of cold water. It should never stand in any metal or glazed vessel, for the acid would act upon their surfaces to an injurious extent. RHUBARB SHERBET (a Refreshing Drink). 1244. Boil six or eight sticks of clean rhubarb ten minutes in a quart of water; strain the liquor into a jug, in which is the peel of a Y lemon cut very thin, and two table-spoonfuls of clarified sugar; let it stand five or six hours, and it is fit to drink.
Two invalid-cookery drinks: a spoonful of sweetened raspberry vinegar let down in cold water, and a rhubarb infusion. Both are simple, and both depend on keeping strong fruit acid away from reactive surfaces.
- The vessel warning is realRaspberry vinegar and rhubarb liquor are both acidic enough to leach from bare copper, brass, unlined tin, and old lead-glazed earthenware. Use glass, stainless steel, or modern stoneware and the problem disappears.
- Raspberry vinegar is a shrub syrupPeriod raspberry vinegar is fruit steeped in wine vinegar, strained, then boiled with sugar to a thick cordial — not plain vinegar flavoured with berries. A commercial raspberry vinegar sold for salads is unsweetened and will not work here; look for a raspberry shrub or drinking vinegar.
- Proportion for the draughtA dessertspoonful is about 2 teaspoons, and a tumbler is roughly 8 to 10 fl oz. Adjust to taste, since modern shrubs vary widely in sugar and sharpness.
- Clarified sugarThis means sugar boiled with water and skimmed — in effect a plain sugar syrup. Two tablespoons of any 1:1 simple syrup gives about the same sweetness; it dissolves in the cold infusion far better than granulated sugar would.
- Rhubarb quantitySix to eight sticks is a large, vague measure; modern forced rhubarb runs slim and field rhubarb thick. Roughly 1 to 1 1/4 lb of trimmed stalks to a quart of water is a reasonable reading of it.
- Rhubarb leavesUse only the stalks. The leaf blades carry oxalic acid and related compounds at levels that make them unfit to eat or infuse, so trim them off and discard them before boiling.
- Ten minutes is enoughTen minutes' boiling is what the recipe asks for; boiling much longer will break down the fibre and cloud the liquor.
- Standing time and keepingThe five or six hours lets the liquor cool and take up the flavour of the thin-cut lemon peel; over that length of time it is better kept in the refrigerator than at room temperature. Drink the rhubarb sherbet within two or three days -- it has little sugar and no preservative.
- YieldThe rhubarb recipe makes about a quart, or four tumblers.
Vinegar-based cordials were a common feature of the Victorian sickroom, where a sharp, sweet, cold drink was thought to answer thirst and "cool the blood" in fever better than plain water. Raspberry vinegar was commonly made in the summer glut and kept through the year. The instruction never to let it stand in metal or glazed ware reflects a genuine hazard of the period rather than superstition: cheap earthenware glazes and tinned or copper vessels could give up lead and copper to fruit acids, and the warning appears in household manuals of the period. The rhubarb drink belongs to the same family of homemade "sherbets" -- the word here means a cold sweetened infusion, from the Arabic sharbat, with no ice or frozen dessert implied.