This has been a full month for me, so I thought I’d give you all a couple of examples for historical drinks that are good for hot weather, so when you’re on the beach with your beach reads, or sitting on the porch with your porch reads, you have some solid options to choose from.
Throughout a lot of history, drinking water hasn’t always been that safe to drink straight, and it’s often just not that pleasant to taste. Generally, that meant alcohol or boiling. While germ theory wasn’t understood until the 19th century, people did notice that they died less if they put alcohol in their water or boiled it first.
In addition, when it’s hot and you’re trying to keep hydrated, having some sort of electrolytes is good for water absorption and can be better on your stomach than plain cold water. Also it’s more interesting, so you might be more inclined to drink enough.
Sekanjabin is a Middle Eastern drink syrup made with vinegar and honey or sugar and sometimes mint. One you have the syrup, you can dilute it in water, and it’s very refreshing. There’s a 10th century recipe for it that’s extremely basic (Vinegar and honey) and an Andalusian cookbook that mentions that it’s good during Ramadan fasting.
I’m giving you a modern recipe I got from David Friedman, but honestly, it hasn’t changed much in the past thousand years.
“Dissolve 4 cups sugar in 2 1/2 cups of water; when it comes to a boil add 1 cup wine vinegar. Simmer 1/2 hour. Add a handful of mint, remove from fire, let cool. Dilute the resulting syrup to taste with ice water (5 to 10 parts water to 1 part syrup). The syrup stores without refrigeration.”
I have a 1767 English cookbook Primitive Cookery; or the kitchen garden display’d ( A ), that bills itself as a guide for poor people who can’t afford meat. In it, there’s “A cheap drink for families.” Honestly, it sounds kinda gross.
“Take a quart of water, mix it with one or two spoonfulls of ground oat-meals, well brewed together makes an excellent drink in summer.”
It goes on to say that this drink will prevent stones and keep passages clear and generally improves cheerfulness. I mean, yes, oatmeal has fiber, and I am happier when I am regular, so I can see it. Story kinda checks out.
Sir Kenlem Digby (1603-1665) was an English courtier who had a cookbook published from his writings in 1669. He’s noted in SCA circles as the author of a recipe for “Excellent Small Cakes” (you’ll learn more about these in the fall) but he’s also got an extremely large collection of recipes for meads.
“A very pleasant drink is made of Apples, thus:
Boil sliced Apples in water, to make the water strong of Apples, as when you make to drink it for coolness and pleasure. Sweeten it with Sugar to your taste, such a quantity of sliced Apples, as would make so much water strong enough of Apples; and then bottle it up close for three or four months.
There will come a thick mother at the top, which being taken off, all the rest will be very clear, and quick and pleasant to the taste, beyond any Cider. It will be the better to most tastes, if you put a very little Rosemary into the liquor when you boil it, and a little Limon-peel into each bottle when you bottle it up.”
I’m going to have to try this when apples come into season this fall. It sounds VERY tasty. (Okay, it’s maybe not really hot weather drinks, except that cider and cider variants are delicious. But three or four months after apple season will be mid-winter, when you’re craving any vitamin C at all.)
Speaking of vitamin C, here’s a recipe from the 1767 book for lemonade, which is “extreme cooling in hot diseases, and particularly in fevers, much comforting if it does not recover.” (This seems to imply, “Look, even if you die, you get some relief from the tastiness of the lemonade.”)
“Scrape into water and sugar as much lemon-peel as you think is convenient, then drop in a few drops of the essence of sulfur, cut in some slices of lemon, and put in rose water.”
Sulfur is used in winemaking as a agent to prevent bacteria growth, so maybe that’s what’s happening here. If you want to try this, you can get essence of sulfur from homeopathic suppliers. I wouldn’t try this, to be honest, because I’m not a fan of rosewater.
The Jane Austen Center in Bath has an 1827 recipe for “excellent” lemonade, which looks pretty familiar:
Excellent Lemonade
Take one gallon of water, put to it the juice of ten good lemons, and the zeasts of six of them likewise, then add to this one pound of sugar, and mix it well together, strain it through a fine strainer, and put it in ice to cool; this will be a most delicious and fine lemonade.
(Take this and mix it with a light beer and you have yourself a shandy. Also excellent for beach drinking. Just saying.)
Go forth and stay hydrated, my lovelies!
What’s your favorite summer beverage?
I am there for that Austen lemonade!
I’m not convinced that oat meal drink would taste of anything at all.
I used to like lemon barley water, but unfortunately Robinson’s Traditional Lemon Barley Water now contains artificial sweeteners which, to me, give an unpleasant after taste. So it’s cold coffee for me, not iced because I don’t do iced, just cooled strong coffee with an equal amount of fridge cold milk. And yes shandy, best drink I ever had after a gruelling stretch of the Cornish coastal path on a hot day when we ran out of water was a pint of shandy in the pub at the end of the route.
Someone gave me a bottle of tamarind syrup, and I’ve been making delicious drinks as follows: mix equal quantities of lemon juice and tamarind syrup; dilute to taste with ice water. Optionally, serve with a sprig of mint.
I make spiced ice tea. Brew a gallon of strong black tea and let cool. Make a simple syrup of water and sugar and steep a cinnamon stick and some cloves in it (I usually wrap them in cheesecloth). Combine tea and syrup with orange and lemon juice and chill. I make ice cubes of plain black tea to serve with it so as not to dilute the flavour.
Excellent hot weather drink: juice spritzer
Take a you-sized beverage receptacle (anything from a water glass to a beer mug)
Cover the bottom 1/5-1/4 of said receptacle with refrigerator-cold apple juice
Fill the rest of the container with refrigerator-cold fizzy water, plain or appropriately flavored
If you really must add ice, use frozen juice cubes or reusable plastic ice cubes so you don’t dilute your drink.
N.B. Wait for hot weather to try it. The first time I drank it was on a cool day and I thought it was meh. Your physical discomfort enhances the experience. 😉
Not sure, but I think grammatically the 1767 cookbook is using “recover” as a transitive verb. So “it” (the lemonade) does not actually lower the fever (“recover” [you/the patient]) but it does relieve the symptoms. I suspect this is in implied contrast to quinine or (I think) willowbark tea, which both contain acetylsalicylic acid (the active ingredient in aspirin) but unlike lemonade taste icky. So lemonade is refreshing but not actually medicinal, which is fair enough. Nothing about the patient dying. (For similar use of “recover” as transitive verb, see Michael Drayton’s great break-up sonnet “Since there’s no help” which ends “thou mightest him yet recover” meaning “you might MAKE the dying one recover.”)
Since a child I have wanted to try Raspberry Cordial. I’ve seen a recipe online based on what Anne should of served and should try it thus summer.
via I discovered Shrubs and I love them. I may have to try making them myself, maybe starting with this recipe http://www.thekitchn.com/how-to-make-a-fruit-shrub-syrup-174072
Deidre @8 Oh I didn’t know that was what a shrub was! I’ve had diluted raspberry vinegar as a drink and it was very refreshing.
I am so making Sekanjabin when summer comes along. Sounds great, and I am trying to lower my soda consumption.
(Southern Hemisphere here. Winter arrives with Game of Thrones)
Syrups of any sort are great in summer. Mint is my favourite, but you can make great syrups in the same way using thyme, rosemary, verbena, or lemon balm. Bring 1L of water to a boil and stir in 1kg of sugar until the mixture starts to thicken, then take off the fire and toss in a big handful of mint stalks (or other aromatic herbs). Leave it to cool for a few hours until the flavour has developed. Store in a bottle in the fridge and dilute one part of syrup with 6-8 parts of ice-cold water to drink.