This and any other cordial may be coloured red by mixing with it (after it is filtered) cochineal, powdered, dissolved in a little white brandy, and strained through fine muslin.
RATAFIA.—
Pound in a mortar, and mix together a pound of shelled bitter almonds, an ounce of nutmegs, a pound of fine loaf-sugar, and one grain (apothecaries' weight) of ambergris. Infuse these ingredients for a week in a gallon of white brandy or proof spirit. Then filter it, and bottle it for use.
CAPILLAIRE.—
Powder eight pounds of loaf-sugar, and wet it with three pints of water and three eggs well beaten with their shells. Stir the whole mass very hard, and boil it twice over, skimming it well. Then strain it, and stir in two wine glasses of orange flower water. Bottle it, and use it for a summer draught, mixed with a little lemon juice and water; or you may sweeten punch with it.
ORGEAT.—
To make orgeat paste, blanch, mix together, and pound in a mortar till perfectly smooth, three quarters of a pound of shelled sweet almonds, and one quarter of a pound of shelled bitter almonds; adding frequently a little orange-flower or rose water, to keep them from oiling; and mixing with them, as you proceed, a pound of fine loaf-sugar that has been previously powdered by itself. When the whole is thoroughly incorporated to a stiff paste, put it into little pots and close them well. It will keep five or six months, and, when you wish to use it for a beverage, allow a piece of orgeat about the size of an egg to each half pint or tumbler of water. Having well stirred it, strain the mixture.
To make liquid orgeat for present use; blanch and pound in a mortar, with rose water, a quarter of a pound of sweet and an ounce and a half of bitter almonds. Then sweeten three pints of rich milk with half a pound of loaf-sugar, and stir the almonds gradually into it. Boil it over hot coals; and as soon as it comes to a boil, take it off and stir it frequently till it gets cold. Then strain it, add a glass of brandy and put it into decanters. When you pour it out for drinking dilute it with water.