A different kind of Recipe...

In the spirt of the Renaissance Festieval coming up, and due to the fact I spent a good part of the afternoon only sanding down the Throne; (It fits together btw, finally. It took a good four hours of sanding the thing though...) I've decided to include a small sampling of the recipes from an old OLD family cookbook.

To make Rasberry Wine: (Since this is the wine garden's last year..:-( ) Take some fine rasberries, bruise them with the back of spoon, then strain them through a flannel bag into a stone jar. To weach quart of juice, put a pound of double refined sugar, stir it well together and cover it close; let it stand three day, the pour it off clear. To a quart of juice, put two quarts of white wine; bottle it off; it will be fit to drink in a week. Brandy made thus is a very fine dram, and a much better way than steeping the rasberries.

This sounds interesting... Orgeat. A necessary Refreshment at all Parties Boil two quarts of milk with a stick of cinnamon, and let it stand to be quite cold, first taking out the cinnamon; blanch four ounces of the best sweet almonds, pound them in a marble mortar with a little rose water; mix them well with the milk, sweeten it to your taste, and let it boil a few minutes only, lest the almonds should be oily; strain it through a very fine sieve, till quite smooth and free from the almonds; serve it up either cold or luke-warm in glasses with handles.

And for those that drink a wee too much of the Rasberry Wine....:-) To recover a person from intoxication. Make the person that is intoxicated drink a glass of vinegar, or a cup of strong coffee without milk or sugar, or a glass of hot wine. Any of these articles are a most safe and quick remedy to recover a person from intoxication.

I should add, that all of these are from Hermitage Hospitality to which my great grandmother wrote the introduction. The copy I have is from 1970 and I'm not sure if it is still in print. I might add some more recipes tomorrow, depending on how far I get working on a client's Irish gown.