Practical Cooking and Dinner Giving / A Treatise Containing Practical Instructions in Cooking; in the Combination and Serving of Dishes; and in the Fashionable Modes of Entertaining at Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner

by Mary F. Henderson

Cut thin slices, or only the yellow part of the rinds of the twenty-four lemons. Let these thin parings and the two grated nutmegs infuse for twenty-four hours in one quart of the rum. It should be put in a warm place.

At the end of the twenty-four hours, add to the juice of the twenty-four lemons (freed from seeds) the water, sugar, rum, and also the rum containing the lemon-peel and nutmeg. Put all into a large vessel. When the sugar is dissolved, add the five pints of boiling milk while the mixture is being stirred all the time. It will curdle, of course. Then cover it, and let it stand still one hour, when filter it through a bag, until it is as clear and bright as a crystal. It may take three or four hours. Pale rum should be used. This quantity will make enough to fill about one dozen quart bottles. Cork them well, and keep them standing. It may be used at once, but it will not be in perfection until it is a year or two old. It will keep forever. The bag may be made three-cornered with a yard square of rather coarse Canton flannel.

This punch is nice to serve with mock-turtle soup, or it may be used for making Roman punch. Like sherry, it is a convenient beverage to offer, with cake, to a lady friend at any time.

Roman Punch.

Make or purchase lemon ice. Just before serving, put enough for one person at table into a saucer or punch-glass, and pour over two table-spoonfuls of the milk punch, made as in the last receipt. A course of Roman punch is often served at dinner parties just after the roast. There is no better, cheaper, or easier way of preparing it than this.

Claret Punch.

Cut up the yellow part of one lemon, and let it soak for three or four hours in half of a quart bottle of claret; add then the other half of the wine. Sweeten to taste, and add one bottle of soda. Put a clove into each glass before pouring out the punch.

Eggnog.

Ingredients: Six eggs, half a pound of sugar, half a pint of brandy or whisky, three pints of cream whipped to a froth.

Beat the yolks of the eggs and the sugar together until it is a froth; add the brandy or whisky, next the whites of the eggs beaten to a stiff froth, and then the whipped cream.