Tag Archives: Drink

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?

Orange Lime Fizz

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 Cook Book. 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?

Breakfast Cocoa

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.

Happy New Year!

Ginger Ale​ Frost

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.

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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.

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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.

Summer Drinks: Frosted Chocolate Soda

Today’s drink is a frothy, creamy frosted chocolate soda. You might experiment with the amount of chocolate syrup in this one. The recipe as it is makes a nice milk chocolate flavor. If you like your drinks more chocolatey, you could add a bit, or a lot, more syrup.

The recipe makes one tall glass of soda. You definitely need a tall glass so you can add all of the ingredients. This is a tasty alternative to a root beer float. The chocolate syrup from yesterday’s post works really well in this drink. In fact, its what the recipe actually calls for. I used ginger ale, but carbonated water can be used in its place.

This recipe is also from The Good Housekeeping Cook Book from 1944. When you’re done with this chocolate soda, you can check out another Summer Drink to help you stay cool.

Frosted Chocolate Soda

2 tbsp Chocolate Syrup

1/2 c. milk

vanilla ice cream

carbonated water or ginger ale

For each serving, beat together the chocolate syrup and milk. Pour this mixture over a scoop of vanilla ice cream in a tall glass. Fill the remaining space in the glass with carbonated water or ginger ale. Enjoy!

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Chocolate Syrup

Tomorrow’s drink calls for chocolate syrup. I thought it might be fun to make my own syrup with a recipe from 1944. It’s in The Good Housekeeping Cook Book in the drinks section, so it’s a recipe specifically for adding to beverages. The cookbook suggests using it for iced cocoa or chocolate, chocolate milk, shakes, and so on. The recipe makes quite a bit of syrup, so make sure you have a large enough storage container. The pictures here are of one small jar of syrup, but there was enough to fill several jars.

The resulting syrup was a little on the runny side, but it mixed smoothly into milk, and would probably be thick enough to use on ice cream. We tested the syrup in different amounts in milk, and it mixed well even when we made the milk extra chocolatey.

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The recipe does offer a couple options when it comes to ingredients. We used cocoa and did not use any corn syrup. I’d love to hear how you use this chocolate syrup.

Chocolate Syrup

1 c. cocoa OR 4 sq. (4 oz) unsweetened chocolate, cut in pieces

3 c. granulated sugar (corn syrup may be used as a substitute for half the sugar–add just before cooling)

1/4 tsp salt

2 c. cold water

3 tsp vanilla extract

Combine the cocoa or chocolate, the sugar, and salt in a small saucepan. Stir in the water and cook the mixture over low heat, stirring until it’s thickened and smooth. (The recipe says this will take about 5 minutes, but we cooked ours longer.) You can beat it with an egg beater if needed. Cool slightly, and then add the vanilla. Pour into a glass container and keep in the refrigerator.

 

Summer Drinks: Ginger Cream

Summer, where I live, is incredibly hot. We are always trying to find ways to cool off. I thought this week might be a great time to find cold drink recipes to try, especially ones that are different from our usual modern options.

Today’s drink is from the 1944 edition of The Good Housekeeping Cook Book. It sounded refreshing and new but ended up tasting quite a bit like an old favorite.

Ginger Cream

1 c. light cream

t tsp vanilla extract

1 tbsp powdered sugar

pale dry ginger ale

ice

Mix the cream, vanilla extract, and powdered sugar together. Separate the resulting mixture equally between three tall glasses. Add ice. Fill the glass with ginger ale. Stir and serve.

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Results

The drink had a delightful amount of froth at the top. We thought this tasted just like the bottom of a root beer float.  You know–the very end that is made up of melted vanilla ice cream and a bit of root beer. It was delicious. One of our testers doesn’t like cream soda and wasn’t a huge fan of this because it reminded him of that drink.  Be aware of that if cream sodas aren’t your thing. Otherwise, this makes a refreshing drink on a hot afternoon. The recipe makes 3 three drinks.

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