The CWI Cookbook

Posts Tagged ‘cider’

Hard cider
1 egg
1 and 1/2 tsp. sugar
2 or 3 small lumps ice

Add all the above ingredients except the cider to a large tumbler, fill with cider, and shake well. This is a splendid drink and is very popular on the Mississippi River. It was General Harrison’s favorite beverage.

From Bon-Vivant’s Companion by Jerry Thomas, 1862

Comment: For many years this recipe has run with this note: “We have no clue who General Harrison was, but are shocked that a general officer would be drinking hard cider anyway. Shocked, we tell you!” Thanks to alert reader J. Henry Flake Jr. of Battery C, 32nd. Georgia Infantry/Artillery reenactment group, we can add that “Harrison was a Major General, Commander of the 32nd Infantry Regiment of Georgia.” Our thanks to Sgt. Flake for the solution to this puzzle!

Now that that mystery is clear up, the only one that remains is why anyone would want to consume an “egg nog” that is based on apple cider, hard or not. It would definitely be a unique addition to any historical presentation carried out during the holiday season.

 1 pint cider
1 c. brandy
Sugar
Nutmeg
Milk

Put a pint of cider, a glass of brandy, sugar, and nutmeg, into a bowl, and milk into it; or pour warm milk from a large tea-pot some height into it.

From The Cook’s Own Book by “a Boston Housekeeper” (Mrs. N. K. M. Lee), Boston, 1832

Comment: We usually describe syllabubs as a sort of precursor to the milkshake, with booze, in part because they are usually subjected to a mixing process requiring either a “syllabub churn” or as much as an hour of beating with a whisk. This one merely calls for having the milk squirted fresh from the cow’s udder into the bowl, or else pouring previously-acquired milk from a vessel held high in the air over the remainder of the recipe. We leave the choice to the discretion, and cattle ownership status, of our readers.