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Drink

A Midsummer Drink

A chilled fruit drink made from strawberries or raspberries, water, tartaric acid, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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A Midsummer Drink

Ingredients

Directions

Make the infusion

  1. Pour 3 quarts of water over the strawberries or raspberries in a pan.

  2. Dissolve 3 oz of tartaric acid in the water and let it stand for 2 days.

  3. Stir frequently without bruising the fruit.

Strain and bottle

  1. Strain the mixture through muslin.

  2. Add 1 lb of sugar for each pint of liquid and stir until dissolved.

  3. Bottle and cork tightly, securing with wet bladder, and store in a cool place.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

What each ingredient does

Strawberries or raspberries
Provide the main fruit flavour, aroma and colour for the drink.
Tartaric acid
Adds sharpness that balances the sweetness and brightens the fruit flavour.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and body, balancing the acidity of the fruit and acid.

The step that matters

Stir frequently without bruising the fruit. Gentle stirring lets the acid and water draw out flavour and colour while keeping the fruit intact. Crushing the fruit releases bitter or cloudy compounds and can spoil the clarity of the strained drink.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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