Frosted Apricot Milk

It was really warm here today, and I wanted to find a cold drink recipe to enjoy outside. I found an interesting one, but I’ll be honest–we modernized the instructions. I very rarely do that when I’m working with historical recipes. I try to keep the methods as historically accurate as possible. We turned this recipe into a modern milkshake by putting all of the ingredients in a blender, but I still wanted to share it with you.

The recipe comes from a 48-page booklet published by the Culinary Arts Institute in 1940. It’s called The Dairy Book and it is part of a series of specialty cookbooks that include titles about breads, candies, leftovers, and so on. The cookbook was created to provide home front housewives a variety of recipes that helped add milk to the diet, something the introduction stated was hard to find at the time. The cookbook has a variety of recipes that range from desserts and beverages like today’s Frosted Apricot Milk to appetizers, soups, and entrees.

Frosted Apricot Milk

• 1 c cooked apricots and juice
• 3 c milk
• 1/2 pint vanilla ice cream

Press apricots through a sieve. Mix apricot pulp and milk. Put ice cream in a pitcher. Pour milk mixture over ice cream. Stir until slightly mixed. Serves 4-6.

Results

We pureed the apricots in a food processor. Then we put the milk, apricots, and ice cream in the blender and mixed it well. If you followed the recipe it would be a lumpier mixture, but we really like the smooth texture of a milkshake. The apricot flavor was mild. If you make this, you might consider adjusting the amount of apricots to add more flavor.

This was an easy milkshake recipe for today. Using a blender and food processor is much less labor-intensive than using a sieve and stirring by hand. I think it’s valuable to occasionally make these recipes in a more modern way. Adapting recipes makes it easier to add them to our repertoire of dishes we eat in our everyday lives, keeping old-style, often forgotten recipes alive for more generations to enjoy.

One last note: Warm pureed apricots also make a nice sundae topping.

Let me know if you try this recipe. Which method did you use?