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Essence of Ginger
Mrs Christopher Patterson.
Infuse four ounces of well bruised ginger, and an ounce of lemon peel sliced thin in a pint and a-half of strong rectified spirits (of brandy); let it be closely stopped and shaken every day.
A flavouring tincture rather than a drink: ginger and lemon peel steeped in strong spirit, used afterwards by the teaspoon or the drop. The original assumes you know the parts it leaves out — how long to steep and to strain at the end.
- Rectified spiritsRectified spirit is purified, near-neutral ethanol, historically sold by chemists at very high strength; the parenthetical "(of brandy)" allows brandy instead. A high-proof neutral grain spirit or a decent brandy both work, but the higher the proof the more aromatic oil it will pull from the ginger.
- MeasureThis book is Toronto-published, so a pint is the Imperial 20 fluid ounces — a pint and a half is about 30 Imperial fl oz, roughly 850 ml or 3 1/2 US cups. Four ounces of ginger and one of lemon peel are weights, not volumes.
- Steeping timeNone is given. Daily shaking implies weeks rather than days; two to three weeks in a warm, dark spot gives a fully extracted essence, and it will keep extracting slowly beyond that.
- Bruising the ginger"Well bruised" means crushed to split the fibres, not grated to a pulp. Whack peeled slices with the flat of a knife or a pestle; pulp makes the finished essence cloudy and hard to strain.
- Lemon peelSlice thin means the coloured zest only. Any white pith carried along turns the tincture bitter over a long steep.
- Straining, which the recipe omitsStrain through muslin and bottle in dark glass with a tight closure. Left on the solids indefinitely it grows harsh and muddy.
- Vessel"Closely stopped" means tightly stoppered, in period practice a corked or glass-stoppered bottle. Alcohol at this strength can corrode bare metal lids and degrade some plastics; use glass with a glass or lined lid.
- Yield and useAbout 3 cups of concentrated essence — a very large quantity by modern standards. It is used in drops and teaspoons to flavour cakes, puddings, sauces, hot toddies and ginger cordials, not drunk as a liqueur.
Home-made essences filled the gap between the kitchen and the chemist's shop in the nineteenth century: bottled vanilla, lemon and ginger extracts existed commercially but were expensive and frequently adulterated, so households made their own by steeping flavourings in spirit. Ginger essence sat on the border between flavouring and medicine — ginger has long been taken for indigestion and nausea, and tinctures of ginger appear in pharmacopoeias of the period alongside their use in gingerbread and sauces. The Home Cook Book (Toronto, 1877) was a compiled charity cookbook, its receipts credited to named contributors like Mrs Christopher Patterson here, and the instructions are notably telegraphic, with the obvious steps left unsaid.