Читать книгу Gilded Age Cocktails - Cecelia Tichi - Страница 9

While America basked in the Gilded Age, France in the later 1800s enjoyed its own Belle Epoque. Thirsts on both sides of the Pond were slaked with the advice and counsel of arbiters of taste in the kitchen and the salon.

The French “king of chefs and chef of kings,” George Auguste Escoffier—known simply as Escoffier (b. 1846)—dominated continental cuisine from Paris to London from the kitchens of hotelier César Ritz. And Escoffier’s influence extended across the Atlantic to Gilded Age kitchens along Fifth Avenue and, in the summer season, the “cottages” on Bellevue Avenue and Ocean Drive in Newport, Rhode Island.

Escoffier’s Guide Culinaire (1903) swelled with upwards of three thousand recipes for every conceivable comestible from sauces to sweets. A few delectable compounds in his “Drinks and Refreshments” were free of alcohol for teetotalers and for those possibly nursing hangovers. His iced coffee (Café Glacé) and lemonade (Citronade) honor the quintessential bean and tartest citrus, and his raspberry-flavored red currant water (Eau de Groseilles Framboisées) is a marvel of maceration. Other beverages, however, were meant to please the palate with liqueurs, wines, or whiskey. (The quantities suggested in the recipes reproduced below were thought sufficient for fifteen servings.)

Vive la différence!

Bavarian Cream–Bavaroise

Work eight oz. of powdered sugar with eight egg yolks in a saucepan, until the whole becomes white and reaches the ribbon stage. Then add consecutively: one-fifth pint of capillary syrup, one pint of freshly made, boiling hot tea, and the same amount of boiling milk; whipping briskly the while, that the drink may be very frothy. Complete at the last moment with one-third pint of the liqueur which is to characterize the Bavaroise; either Kirsch or Rum.

If the Bavaroise is flavored with vanilla, orange or lemon, let the flavor steep in the milk for fifteen minutes beforehand. If it be flavored with chocolate, dissolve six oz. of the latter, and add the milk to it, flavored with vanilla.

If it be coffee-flavored, set three oz. of freshly roasted and ground coffee to steep in the milk or flavor with one pint of freshly-made coffee.

Bavaroise is served in special glasses, and it must be frothy.

Bishof–Bischoff

Put into a basin one bottleful of Champagne, one Sherry-glassful of “tilleul” (linden or lime) infusion, one orange and one lemon, cut into thin slices, and enough syrup at 32° to bring the preparation to 18°. Let the steeping proceed in a cool place for an hour. This done, strain; freeze it like a Granité, and finish it with four liqueur-glassfuls of liqueur-brandy.

Serve in bumpers.

Pineapple Water–Eau d’Ananas

Finely chop one and a half lbs. of fresh or preserved pineapple; put it into a bowl and pour over it one quart of boiling syrup at 20°. Let it cool, and steep for two hours.

Strain through a bag; add a piece of ice and sufficient seltzer water to reduce the liquid to 9°. Keep the preparation in a cool place for a further twenty minutes, and complete it, when about to serve, with three liqueur-glasses of Kirsch.

Cherry Water–Eau de Cerises

Pit two lbs. of very ripe cherries, and rub them through a sieve. Put the purée into a bowl with the stones, crushed in the mortar, and let the whole steep for one hours. Then moisten with one pint of filtered water, and strain the juice through a bag, or muslin folded in two and stretched.

Add a piece of well-washed ice and six oz. of sugar, and put the whole in a cool place for twenty minutes. Flavor, when about to serve, with four liqueur-glasses of Kirsch.

The saccharometer should register 9° when inserted into this preparation.

Kaltschale–Kaltschale

Peel and slice one-half lb. of peaches and an equal quantity of pineapple; add four oz. of ripe, melon pulp, cut into dice, and four oz. of a mixture of raspberries and red and white currants, cleared of their stalks. Put these fruits in a silver timbale and keep the latter on ice. Set a little cinnamon to steep in a half-bottleful of boiling, white wine; add half a pint of mixed purée of strawberries and red-currants to this infusion.

Filter the whole, and complete it by the addition of a bottle of champagne.

Pour this preparation over the fruit, and serve the timbale very cold.

Punch with Kirsch–Punch au Kirsch

Throw a good half oz. of tea into one quart of boiling water, and let it steep for ten minutes. Put into a punch or salad-bowl one 1b. of sugar; strain the infusion of tea over the sugar, and dissolve the sugar; stirring the while with a silver spoon.

Add one and a half pints of kirsch, light it and serve in glasses.

Punch with Rum–Punch au Rhum

Make an infusion as above, with the same amount of tea and one quart of boiling water. Strain it over one lb. of sugar, in a punchbowl and let the sugar dissolve.

Add a few thin slices of lemon and one and a half pints of rum, and light it. Serve with a slice of lemon in each glass.

Marquise Punch–Punch Marquise

Put into a small, copper saucepan one quart of Sauterne wine, half-lb. of sugar, and the zest of the rind of one lemon bound round a clove. Dissolve the sugar; heat the wine until it becomes covered by thin white froth; and pour it into a punch-bowl after having removed the zest and the clove.

Add half a pint of burnt brandy; light it and let it burn itself out. Serve with a thin slice of lemon in each glass.

Ice Punch–Punch Glacé

Prepare a Marquise Punch as above; when the wine is hot, take it off the fire; throw in a good half oz. of tea, and let the whole steep covered for ten minutes.

Pass the whole through a fine strainer; add one orange and one lemon; peeled and cut into slices, and some heated rum. Light it; leave to cool and reduce to 15°. Then freeze like a Granité, and serve in glasses.

Hot Wine–Vins Chauds

Pour one bottle of red wine over 10 oz. of sugar, set in a small, copper basin. Dissolve the sugar. Add one orange zest, a bit of cinnamon and mace, and one clove. Heat the wine until it is covered by thin froth, and then pass it through a fine strainer.

Serve with a thin slice of lemon in each glass.

Hot Wine with Orange–Vin Chaud á l’Orange

Pour half a pint of boiling water over ten oz. of sugar. Add the zest of one orange and let steeping proceed for fifteen minutes. Remove the zest, and mix one bottle of heated Burgundy wine with the infusion.

Serve with a round slice of orange in each glass.

Wine a La Francaise–Vin á la Française

Put eight oz. of sugar into a salad-bowl, and sprinkle on a few tablespoons of water; that it may dissolve. Add one bottle of excellent Bordeaux wine or red Burgundy, and the half of a lemon cut into thin slices. Stir well with a silver spoon and serve with a slice of lemon in each glass.

N.B.—Always remember to free the lemons and oranges used of all seeds, which would lend a bitterness to the drink.

Claret Cup–Le Cup de Vin Rouge

Put into a crystal bowl one oz. of sugar, the rind of one lemon and three slices of the latter, an equal quantity of orange, one strip of cucumber peel, one tablespoon of Angostura Bitters, and a liqueur-glass of each of the following liqueurs:—Brandy, Maraschino and white Curaçao.

Complete with one and a half bottles of red wine and a bottle of Soda. Cover and let the whole infuse. Strain, add a few pieces of very clean ice and a few leaves of fresh mint.

F

On American shores, the socialite and authoress Mary Elizabeth Wilson Sherwood (Mrs. John Sherwood, b. 1826) sought to put her own stamp on the nation’s cocktails. Though her contemporary female writers Louisa May Alcott and Harriet Beecher Stowe had found welcoming audiences, Wilson signed her books with the initials M. E. W., perhaps seeking the dignity and authority she suspected would be denied to a lady authoress of her time. Mrs. Sherwood had joined their ranks with such novels as The Sarcasm of Destiny and Roxobel. She also published short stories and translated poetry from the French. Now, an etiquette manual of her own, The Art of Entertaining (1892), arrived replete with French phrasing amid advice to American ladies who, she feared, must be the “servant-trainer, then housekeeper, wife, mother, and conversationalist,” hobbled by the accident of birth that put them on the New World side of the Atlantic.

The American lady of the house, Mrs. Sherwood added, “must keep up with the always advancing spirit of the times,” and in her manual she advised on all manner of beverages and their service. “The coffee-cups must be thin as egg-shells, of the most delicate French or American china. We make most delicate china and porcelain cups ourselves nowadays, at Newark, Trenton, and a dozen other places.” “The cordials at the end of dinner,” she likewise dictated, “must be served in cups of Russian gold filagree supporting glass. There is an analogy between the rival, luscious richness of the cordial and the cup.”

“There is a vast deal of waste in offering so much wine at a ladies’ lunch,” she declared. “American women cannot drink much wine; the climate forbids it. We have not been brought up on beer, or on anything more stimulating than ice-water. Foreign physicians say that this is the cause of all our woes, our dyspepsia, our nervous exhaustion, our rheumatism and hysteria. I believe that climate and constitution decide these things for us. We are not prone to over-eat ourselves, to drink too much wine; and if the absence of these grosser tastes is visible in pale cheeks and thick arms, is not that better than the other extreme?”

“All entertaining can go on perfectly well without wine,” she concluded, “if people so decide,” and her Art of Entertaining advanced the “spirit” of the times with helpful recipes for beverages to provide guests with midday refreshers during the main meal of the day.

 Champagne Cup: One pint bottle of soda water, one quart dry champagne, one wine-glass of brandy, a few fresh strawberries, a peach quartered, sugar to taste; cracked ice.

 Another recipe: One quart dry champagne, one pint bottle of Rhine wine, fruit and ice as above; cracked ice. Mix in large pitcher.

 Claret Cup: One bottle of claret, one pint bottle of soda water, one wine-glass brandy, half a wine-glass of lemon-juice, half a pound of lump sugar, a few slices of fresh cucumber, mix in cracked ice.

 Mint Julep: Fresh mint, a few drops of orange bitters and Maraschino, a small glass of liqueur, brandy or whiskey, put in a tumbler half full of broken ice; shake well, and serve with fruit on top of straws.

 Another recipe for Mint Julep: Half a glass of port wine, a few drops of Maraschino, a mint, sugar, a thin slice of lemon, shake the cracked ice from glass to glass, add strawberry or pineapple.

 Turkish Sherbets: Extract by pressure or infusion the rich juice and fine perfume of any of the odoriferous flowers or fruits; mix them in any number or quantity to taste. When these essences, extracts, or infusions are prepared they may be immediately used by adding a proper proportion of sugar or syrup; and water. Some acid fruits, such as lemon or pomegranate, are used to raise the flavor, but not to overpower the chief perfume. Fill the cup with cracked ice and add what wine or spirit is preferred.

 Claret Cobbler: One bottle wine, one bottle Apollinaris or Seltzer, one lemon, half a pound of sugar; serve with ice.

 Champagne Cobbler: One bottle of champagne, one half bottle of white wine, much cracked ice, strawberries, peaches or sliced oranges.

 Sherry Cobbler. Full wine-glass of sherry, very little brandy, sugar, slices lemon, cracked ice. This is but one tumblerful.

 Kümmel: This liqueur is very good served with shaved ice in small green claret-cups.

 Punch: One bottle Arrach, one bottle brandy, two quart bottles dry champagne, one tumblerful of orange curaçao, one pound of cracked sugar, half a dozen lemons sliced, half a dozen oranges sliced. Fill the bowl with large lump of ice and add one quart of water.

 Shandygaff: London porter and ginger all [ale?], half and half.