Ginger Cordial.
2 table-spoonfuls ground ginger, fresh and strong.
1 lb. loaf sugar.
½ pint best whiskey.
1 quart red currants.
Juice of 1 lemon.
Crush the currants in a stone vessel with a wooden beetle, and strain them through a clean, coarse cloth, over the sugar. Stir until the sugar is dissolved; add the lemon, the whiskey, and the ginger. Put it into a demijohn or a stone jug, and set upon the cellar-floor for a week, shaking up vigorously every day. At the end of that time, strain through a cloth and bottle. Seal and wire the corks, and lay the bottles on their sides in a cool, dry place.
An excellent summer drink is made by putting two table-spoonfuls of this mixture into a goblet of iced water. It is far safer for quenching the thirst, when one is overheated, than plain ice-water or lemonade.
Milk-Punch. (Hot.)
1 quart milk, warm from the cow.
2 glasses best sherry wine.
4 table-spoonfuls powdered sugar.
4 eggs, the yolks only, beaten light.
Cinnamon and nutmeg to taste.
Bring the milk to the boiling point. Beat up the yolks and sugar together; add the wine; pour into a pitcher, and mix with it, stirring all the time, the boiling milk. Pour from one vessel to another six times, spice, and serve as soon as it can be swallowed without scalding the throat.
This is said to be an admirable remedy for a bad cold if taken in the first stages, just before going to bed at night.