To wrap up drink week, I wanted to add this fun recipe. It’s also from the 1942 edition of The New American Cook Book. I’ll include the paragraph from the book so you can see how the idea was presented.
Results
I chose pineapple juice and Concord grape juice. These drinks turned out so nice. They were very pretty with their two-tone colors that slowly swirled together. The flavor was well balanced. You could taste both the grape and pineapple juices. You can definitely taste the pineapple, though, so if you have some pineapple haters in your bunch, you might want to have a second option available for them.
The colors stayed separated as long as we didn’t stir them together. It seemed to mix from the bottom up. We used straws, so the top of the drink stayed separated until we were nearly finished, but we were drinking from the mixed bottom part of the glass. I’m including a couple of pictures of the drink after it had been sitting for a while.
This is what the drinks looked like until right before we finished them. The top stayed separated longer than expected.
This was a fun way to use two pantry staples. It was also an affordable way to have a fancy looking drink in 1942. I like how the cookbook mentioned Hawaii. I imagine that was very timely after the war began.
Thanks for coming along on my drink journey this week. I’ve found some interesting recipes. Maybe I’ll do this again when it gets cold this winter. If you want to check out the other drinks from this week, you can find them below. See you Monday!
From pineapple yesterday to oranges today. Here’s another refreshing drink for you from the 1942 edition of The New American Cook Book.
Orange Julep
1 qt orange juice
juice from 6 limes
1 c powdered sugar
1/2 c chopped mint leaves
carbonated water
Combine the fruit juices, sugar, and mint leaves. Chill one hour and strain. Pour over crushed ice in tall glasses. Fill with carbonated water and stir gently. Garnish with mint and orange slices.
Results
I left the mint in the pitcher and strained as I was pouring the drink into the glasses. I’m hoping that the longer this drink chills, the more mint flavor it will have. The addition of carbonated water made this taste and feel like a sparkling orange juice and the lime juice gave it a nice little kick. I would definitely pour myself a glass of this and hang out on my patio watching the birds play in the bird bath or the kids build sandcastles. Again, adjust the amount of carbonated water to suit your tastes. Enjoy!
Today’s drink was definitely a winner. If you like pineapples, you’ll like this one. The ingredients are what drew me to the recipe. At first I wasn’t sure if I wanted to try this drink or not, but I decided that this blog is about being adventurous and trying things that I don’t eat everyday. This recipe is perfect for that. You can find this one in the 1942 edition of The New American Cook Book.
Pineapple Fizz
1 1/2 c canned unsweetened pineapple juice
2 tbsp lemon juice
3 drops Worcestershire sauce
1 egg white
crushed ice
2 12 oz bottles dry ginger ale
Place all ingredients except ginger ale in a shaker or screw cap jar, leaving enough room for a thorough shaking. Shake 20 times. Add chilled ginger ale and serve in cocktail glasses. Serves 12.
Results
So far this week, this is my favorite. This drink dials down the sweetness and heaviness of pineapple juice and turns it into a light, refreshing drink. It was a little frothy when first poured into the glass, but that doesn’t last long. If you are worried about the Worcestershire sauce, don’t be. You can’t taste it at all. In fact, I’m tempted to add a few drops more when I make this next to see if it adds more depth to the flavor.
The reactions in my family were very mixed. There are a few people who don’t like pineapple at all and didn’t like it. One isn’t a big fan of pineapple, but really liked the drink, and the pineapple lovers in the group thought it was wonderful. I really think the success of this drink in your house depends on whether or not you enjoy pineapple.
Let me know if you try this one.
Here are links to the rest of the drinks in this series:
Today I’m sharing two versions of one drink with you. The recipe is again from the 1942 edition of The New American Cook Book. If you’d like to start at the beginning of Drink Week, check out yesterday’s Presidential Punch.
Glorified Lemonade
2 c sugar
3 c water
3 lemons, juice
2 limes, juice
2 c orange or lemon carbonated beverage or ginger ale
Boil sugar and water 10 minutes. Cool. Add juice of lemons and limes, and the orange or lemon beverage or ginger ale. Serves 6.
Results: Ginger Ale Version
I added ginger ale to the first batch of glorified lemonade. It was incredibly sweet. I mainly drink unsweetened beverages so, thinking I might be overreacting to the sweetness, I gave some to the rest of my family. No one wanted to finish their drink because of the sweetness. We also all thought it wasn’t as lemony as we expected it would be. We decided to try a second version, but this time we would cut the sugar in half. Using that much sugar in a drink would definitely not be feasible after sugar rationing began in the spring of 1942. Since this recipe is from a 1942 cookbook, it isn’t a stretch to think this lemonade just wasn’t made or was adapted to fit new cooking needs.
Results: Carbonated Orange Beverage Version
One cup of sugar would still be a lot for a housewife to use for a drink recipe in 1942, but it is half of what the original recipe called for. The resulting drink was orange flavored, but still very, very sweet. That’s still so much sugar for a recipe that serves 6, especially combined with orange soda. To be able to drink this, we would have to cut even more sugar. I wonder if the recipe actually contains a misprint. Yesterday’s drink recipe served 20 and called for 2 tablespoons of sugar. I might test this theory again in the future, but right now I think I’m ready to move on to something else.
Also, I need to find a new place to take drink photos. Photographing beverages is a challenge! I’ll see what I can come up with so you don’t see the same background every day this week. Happy Tuesday!
Summer weather has arrived with a vengeance. I’m trying to find a new drink to help us cool off. I have some new cookbooks with drink recipes, and I thought I’d try a few out and share them with you. I’m getting the ones I’m trying this week from the 1942 edition of The New American Cook Book. Let’s hope one of them is the refreshing thirst quencher I’m looking for.
Presidential Punch
Usually this time of year our house is filled with kids and their friends, and I’m always looking for a punch recipe that serves a crowd. There are nine of us in my family, so we still are a small crowd by ourselves. This punch recipes serves 20. I don’t think it would be difficult to cut it in half if you want to try it without the crowd.
mint sprigs
2 tbsp sugar
1 pint strong lemonade
1 bottle grape carbonated beverage
1 bottle orange carbonated beverage
1 bottle ginger ale
1 pint plain or charged water
Select long stemmed sprays of mint and pinch the stems between the fingers until the sprigs give the most flavor. Put these into a deep pitcher half filled with ice or arranged in a punch bowl with ice upon them. Over these, sprinkle sugar and let set for half an hour. Pour in the lemonade, water, grape carbonated beverage, orange carbonated beverage, and ginger ale.
Results
This punch was just ok. It tasted like watered down grape soda, or perhaps grape Kool-Aid. I think that the mixture can be played with a little to make it taste the way you like it. The combination of ingredients made this taste a bit muddy. I don’t think we’ll try it again. I’m also not sure why this was called Presidential Punch. I found several different drinks with the same or similar names, but they weren’t the same as this drink.
Perhaps tomorrow’s recipe will be more successful. Happy Memorial Day to my American readers.
I’m splitting up the beverage and dessert today because this is grocery day and I need ingredients for my dessert. I’m hopeful that my local store will have what I need. I’ve heard rumors that they even have toilet paper!
Today’s recipe comes from the booklet 300 Tasty, Healthful Dairy Dishes published by the Culinary Arts Institute in 1940. I was looking for something different to try, so I thought I’d make this shake recipe. It’s not a shake like we know now. It’s more of a flavored milk drink with ginger ale.
Ginger Pear Shake
1 8oz can pears
1 qt milk
Ginger Ale
Press pears though sieve. Mix pulp and juice, add milk, and pour into tall glasses. Fill glasses with ginger ale.
Results
I’m disappointed in this drink. I love pears, so I was excited to try a drink with pears in it. The shake tasted like milk and ginger ale, and was a little too chunky for me. We tried with different amounts of ginger ale, and didn’t like any of them. We also tried without the ginger ale and it just tasted like milk. This is one recipe I don’t recommend. If you are looking for a period drink, there are several others on the blog that are delicious. Click the drink tab for more ideas.
Don’t forget to join us on Instagram! There’s still time to cook with us!
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?
I haven’t tested a drink recipe in a while. The weather has been warm here and we’ve been enjoying hanging out on our patio lately. I like to have a cool drink to sip while I’m outside, so I thought this would be a great time to add another drink post.
This is from the 1944 edition of The Good Housekeeping CookBook. It’s pretty quick to make, but if there are more than three or four of you drinking it, you’ll want to at least double the recipe. Four of us had average size servings of this drink, but there wasn’t enough left for anyone to have second helpings.
Orange Lime Fizz
2 c orange juice
1/2 c granulated sugar
12 springs mint (cut this up)
4 tbsp lime juice
1 12 oz bottle (1 1/2 c) chilled carbonated water
ice
Heat 1 c of the orange juice to a boil. Add the sugar and the mint. Cover and cool. Strain and then add the remaining orange juice and the lime juice. Just before serving, add the carbonated water and ice. This recipe makes 3 3/4 c before adding the ice. Corn syrup may replace half of the sugar.
Results
I was surprised at the mixed results this drink received. Four of us were home to try it, and the opinions were split 50/50. My husband, who is not a fan of carbonated water, thought the addition of the bubbly liquid ruined it for him. My teenage son thought it was good, but way too sweet for him to want to make it again. Another teenage son loved it and happily finished my husband’s drink as well as his own. I thought it was thirst quenching and refreshing.
I didn’t taste much mint in the drink, which seemed to be the case with my other testers, too. I definitely tasted the lime, perhaps even more than the orange juice. I don’t like carbonated water by itself, but it didn’t bother me at all in this drink. If you are worried about the sweetness, cutting the amount of sugar might help. Actually, I think I’ll try that and see how it goes.
I can picture myself settled in on my patio with a tall glass of orange lime fizz and a good book. What a great way to spend a warm spring or summer afternoon. How’s the weather where you live?
One of my favorite things to do this time of year is sit in front of a roaring fire and sip a cup of hot chocolate. I found a few cocoa recipes in my collection, and I thought I’d test one for you. I’m also including a couple of variations that you can try at home. Let me know if you do.
Breakfast Cocoa
This recipe comes from Ruth Wakefield’s Toll House Tried and True Recipes. I have the 1941 edition. You can read more about this cookbook here.
Though not quite as quick as opening a package of hot cocoa and stirring it into milk or water, this recipe is an easy way to whip up a homemade batch of hot cocoa in a hurry. The recipe says it will serve six, but we found we needed to pour small servings. I’d double this if you have several people who would enjoy a mug of this breakfast cocoa.
3 tbsp cocoa
4 tbsp sugar
1/2 c. boiling water
1 1/2 c. boiling water
2 c. hot milk
dash of salt
Mix the cocoa, sugar, and 1/2 c. boiling water to make a smooth paste. Then add 1 1/2 c. boiling water and boil for 3 minutes. Add the salt and 2 c. hot milk. Beat with a Dover egg beater to prevent scum from forming. Serve.
Results
This makes a smooth cocoa drink. It isn’t overly sweet, but it isn’t bitter either. I wish I had doubled the recipe because everyone wanted a second serving.
The first part of the recipe suggests that the consistancey should be more of a paste. Mine was a bit more runny than that, but it still worked well.
The recipe called for using a Dover egg beater to beat the cocoa mixture. I don’t have one so I mixed it well. I like recipes that suggest vintage or vintage-style tools to add to my collection. I try to keep the recipes as close as possible to the originals, but sometimes I need to modernize it a bit to include tools and gadgets that we are more likely to have on hand in today’s kitchens.
South American Chocolate
This is from the same cookbook as the above, but adds coffee to the mix.
7 oz bar Nestle’s Semi-sweet chocolate bar
1 c. strong hot coffee
6 c. scalded milk
Melt the chocolate bar over hot water. Add the coffee slowly. Boil 1 minute. Add to the scalded milk. Beat until thick froth forms on top and then leave it over the water for 10 minutes. You can serve it hot with whipped cream, sweetened and flavored, or you can pour it into tall glasses with ice to enjoy cold. Serves 8.
Hot Chocolate
This recipe is from the 1944 edition of The Good Housekeeping Cook Book. It’s interesting to note that this cookbook also includes a recipe for basic hot cocoa that mentions packaged ready-to-serve cocoa.
2 squares (2 oz) unsweetened chocolate, cut in pieces
1 c. water
speck salt
3 tbsp granulated sugar (1/2 c. corn syrup may be substituted)
3 c. bottled milk OR 1 1/2 c. evaporated milk and 1 1/2 c. water
Place the chocolate and the water in the top of a double boiler over the direct heat and cook while stirring until the chocolate is melted and smooth. Add the salt and sugar. Boil 4 min., stirring constantly. Place over hot water, add milk gradually while stirring constantly, and heat. Beat with an egg beater until light and frothy, then serve. This recipe suggests serving with a marshmallow or whipped cream. Serves 6.
This will be my last drink post for a while. It’s a good drink for those warm first days of fall. I’ll be continuing the “Baking without…” series and I want to visit some lunch box recipes and wartime lunchbox packing tips. I also have few non-recipe posts coming up. I hope you’ll enjoy what’s in store for the coming weeks.
I wanted to include this recipe because it involves a little more prep than the others I’ve written about. It also is a good example of how cookbooks and magazines included help for the home front housewife in the form of tips and substitution ideas. This recipe suggests using corn syrup in place of half of the sugar required for the drink. This helped the housewife save some of her sugar rations for other recipes.
Ginger Ale Frost
1/2 c. granulated sugar
1 c. hot water
5 whole cloves
1 3″ stick cinnamon
1/4 tsp allspice
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1 1/2 c. orange juice
1 c. canned grapefruit juice
3 1/2 c. pale dry ginger ale
ice
Boil the sugar and water together for 5 minutes. Add spices, and let stand for 1 1/2 hours. Strain through several thicknesses of cheesecloth. Add the fruit juices and chill. Just before serving, add the ginger ale and pour it into ice-filled glasses. This makes 6 1/2 glasses before adding the ice. Corn syrup may replace half of the sugar.
I didn’t have cheesecloth, so I used an empty tea bag as a strainer. This worked really well but made pouring each glass a slow process. Slow, but not tedious.
Result
This is a lovely spiced ginger ale. It got mixed reactions from my testers. You can definitely taste the spices, but the grapefruit juice is not overpowering. One tester who dislikes grapefruit juice liked this drink, but another who dislikes nutmeg didn’t like this at all. This recipe is a bit time consuming, but I enjoyed it enough to recommend trying it at least once.
