Ye Olde Cocktails

“Off with their heads!”

Alcohol has been lubricating society since the recording of time. Or, in this case, 1864, which was the year that the first cook book in Australia was published. The first edition was wordily and loftily entitled: “The English and Australian Cookery Book: Cookery for the Many, as well as the “Upper Ten Thousand” – by an Australian.” The author, Edward Abbott, was kind enough to document nearly everything that was or could be ingested in his day, including a dizzying (ie. dizziness inducing) and occasionally nauseating array of cocktails. I have plucked out a few for your enjoyment!

(Psst. Back then the “upper ten thousand” was parlance for the “upper class”.)

In 1864 cocktails weren’t quite the same as they are today. Clearly the folk of old had no problem with either the alcohol content or their gag reflex. I’ve perused the menu and picked out a few prime candidates for your next cocktail party – leaving out the ones that are sure to cause a premature purging.

Lamb’s Wool

In days of yore this was a favourite liquor with common people, and was composed of roasted apples and ale; the pulp of the apples worked up with the ale till the mixture formed a smooth beverage, with the addition of sugar and spice.

Shandy Graff

Equal proportions of ale and ginger-beer.

Jingle

Roast a few apples, grate some nutmeg on them, and sugar to taste, and place them in a jug, with some slices of toasted bread, heat some ale, and fill the jug.

Tewahdiddle

A pint of small beer, a table-spoon of brandy, and a tea-spoonful of brown sugar, a little grated nutmeg, and a roll of thin lemon- peel.

Summer Drink

Cold tea, flavoured with sliced lemon and dashed with cognac. The tea should be properly made, not allowed to stand until it becomes rank, but boiling water should be poured on the leaves, allowed to stand five minutes, then poured into a jug with slices of lemon at the bottom. A wine-glass of good brandy added when cool, sugar to taste (of course),

Cider Cup

Mix together two quarts of best bottled cider—old, if possible—sweeten to taste, taking care that the sugar is perfectly melted. Add half a nutmeg grated, a glass of brandy, a glass of noyeau, cut a lemon in moderately thin slices, and let them remain there. Make it two hours before wanted, and stand it in some ice.

Brandy Smash

A nip of brandy, a table-spoonful of port wine, a table-spoonful of ice, sugar and water to taste, with a sprig of mint.

John Collins

A composition of gin, sugar, syrup, and soda-water.

Hydromel

Boil eight pints of water and one of good honey till reduced half, then add a glass of brandy. This hydromel will keep ten or twelve years.

Shuv’-in-the-Mouth

This drink is simply cold brandy-and-water, with the addition of a little sugar.

Blow my Skull

as its name imports, was a remarkably powerful drink, and it was made in the following proportions : —Two pints of boiling water, with quantum sufficit of loaf sugar, and lime or lemon-juice, one pint of ale or porter, one pint of rum, and half a pint- of brandy.

This was a colonial beverage in use in the earlier days of Tasmania, and was named and drank by an eccentric governor, Thomas Davey, who had a stronger head than most of his subordinates.

Bishop

Take three best oranges, and grill them to a pale brown •colour over a clear fire. Place them in a small punch-bowl, and pour over them half a pint of claret, in which a pound and a quarter of loaf sugar is dissolved, and cover it. When served, cut the oranges into pieces, and place in a jug containing the remainder of the bottle of claret, made hot. Some use Lisbon wine instead of claret.

Cardinal

This compound is made the same way as bishop, only old wine of the Rhine is used.

Pope

Made in a similar manner to cardinal, only using tokay, vermuth, or malmsey.

Claret Cup

Sherry, six table-spoonfuls brandy, two ditto sugar, an ounce and a half two or three shreds of lemon-peel the above to be added to one bottle of claret, and a bottle of soda-water. They should be kept in a cool place, a refrigerator for instance, and only opened before drinking. A lump of ice and a little borage are improvements.

To Mull Wine

(French recipe).—Boil in a wine-glass and a half of water a quarter of an ounce of spice (cinnamon, bruised ginger, and cloves) with three ounces of fine sugar, until they form a thick syrup, which must not on any account be allowed to burn pour in a pint of; port wine, and stir it gently until it is on the point of boiling only: it should be served immediately. In France, fight clarets take the place of port wine, in making it, and the better kinds of vin du pays are very palatable, when thus prepared: water, one and a half wine-glassfuls; spice, quarter of an ounce port wine or claret, one pint orange-rind, if used, to be boiled with the spice sherry, or fine raisin or ginger wine, as above; stirred hot to the yolks of four fresh eggs, will be found excellent.