Ginger ale

“ The albumen compound [172] is to be added at the same time as the essence; bottle as for lemonade, using 3⁄4 oz. to a bottle.
(a) A strong ginger beer is made by boiling with every gallon of water, 2 lb. loaf sugar, and 1 oz. bruised ginger, 1 oz. cream of tartar, and one small lemon, sliced. To the cooled mixture some yeast is added, and the whole is set aside for fermentation. When the tumultuous fermentation is over, the liquid is bottled. Ginger beer thus made is, when properly fermented, of considerable alcoholic strength, equal at least to the strongest Scotch ale. ”

“ A performer who was with the show last year says that nobody but the newspaper people who had free tickets attended the performances, and some of them wouldn't go in the tent unless the press agent promised to set up a free lunch, with devilish ginger ale to drink, and that the press people got riotous on ginger ale. A ginger ale jag is terrible. When a man is full of ginger ale his intestines loop the loop, and tie up in knots, and gripe like cholera infantum, and unless his friends hold him he goes out into the world and wants to kill the women and children, and non-combatants. ”

“ The first day I worked in the bowling alley, the barkeeper, according to custom, called us boys up to have a drink after we had been setting up pins for several hours. The others asked for beer. I said I'd take ginger ale. The boys snickered, and I noticed the barkeeper favoured me with a strange, searching scrutiny. Nevertheless, he opened a bottle of ginger ale. Afterward, back in the alleys, in the pauses between games, the boys enlightened me. I had offended the barkeeper. A bottle of ginger ale cost the saloon ever so much more than a glass of steam beer ”

“ Bruise slightly two pounds of black currants, and mix them with one ounce and a half of ground ginger. Pour over them one bottle and a half of best brandy, and let the mixture stand for two days. Strain off the liquid, and add one pound of loaf sugar which has been boiled to a syrup in a little water. Bottle and cork closely.
“Jumping Powder”
comes in very handy, on a raw morning, after you have ridden a dozen miles or so to a lawn meet. “No breakfast, thanks, just a wee nip, that’s all.” And the ever ready butler hands round the tray. ”

“ Squeeze into a pitcher the juice of four large fresh lemons. Now add two or three large pieces of ice and one pint of good bourbon whiskey. Mix thoroughly by stirring vigorously a few minutes. Now add two bottles of Cantrell & Cockran's ginger ale and while pouring it in, three tablespoonfuls of granulated sugar. ”

“ Another excellent tipple for warm weather is concocted by mixing brown-stout or bitter ale with ginger-beer, the foam of which stirs up the heavier liquor from its depths, forming a compound of singular vivacity and sufficient body. But of all things ever brewed from malt, (unless it be the Trinity Ale of Cambridge, which I drank long afterwards, and which Barry Cornwall has celebrated in immortal verse,) commend me to the Archdeacon, as the Oxford scholars call it, in honor of the jovial dignitary who first taught these erudite worthies how to brew their favorite nectar. ”

“ A pint of Scotch ale, a pint of mild beer, half a pint of brandy, a pint of sherry, half a pound of loaf sugar, and plenty of grated nutmeg. This cup may be drank either hot or cold.
Egg Flip.
Add the whites and yolks of three eggs, beaten together with three ounces of lump sugar, to half a pint of strong ale; heat the mixture nearly to the boiling-point; then put in two wine-glasses of gin or rum (the former being preferable) , with some grated nutmeg and ginger; add another pint of hot ale, and pour the mixture frequently from one jug to another before serving. ”

“ Not that there is much virtue in either apple or toast, the excellence of the drink being due to the spices, sack, and quality of the ale. It can easily be understood that when ale was for the most part brewed without hops, and consequently rather insipid in taste, many people would have a craving for something more highly flavoured, and would put nutmeg, ginger and other spices into their liquor. It is not unlikely that the introduction of hops was the cause which ultimately led to beer cups going out of fashion. At the present day they are but rarely compounded, even at the Universities. ”

“ Evelyn says that ale and beer, “brewed with these berries, being ripe, is an incomparable drink.”
Maize, beet-root, potatoes, parsnips, and other vegetables have each and all been used in the making of beer, but it seems very doubtful whether any combination of ingredients will ever equal the time-honoured partnership of malt and hops.
A writer in the Gentleman’s Magazine in 1758 says: “In many parts of the Kingdom, a beer is made of treacle—thus: to eight quarts of boiling water put a pound of treacle, a quarter of an ounce of ginger, and two bay leaves. ”

“ The famous Hypocras, for instance, was flavoured with an infusion of brandy, pepper, ginger, cloves, grains of paradise, ambergris, and musk. A Duchess of St. Albans has left us a receipt for making “The Ale of health and strength,” which, it sufficeth to say, was a {385} decoction of nearly all the herbs in the garden (agreeable and otherwise) boiled up in small beer. Old worthies, when induced to give up their receipts for the public good, described these drinks under the head of “Kitchen physic.” ”

“ Anisette, Bitters, Caraway, Cherry Brandy, Clove, Curaçoa, Elderette, Fettle, Ginger Brandy, Ginger Cordial, Ginger Gin, Ginger Punch, Gingerette, Lemon Punch, Lime Fruit, Nectar Punch, Noyeau, Orange Bitters, Orange Gin, Peppermint, Pepper Punch, Pick-me-up, Raspberry, Raspberry Punch, Rum Punch, Rum Shrub, Sarsaparilla, Shrub, Spiced Ale, Strawberry, Tangerine, Tonic, Winter Punch.
But enough of these chemical concoctions of man; let us go to Nature, and see what she turns out of her laboratory. ”

“ In Ben Jonson's masque of The metamorphosed gipsies, a country wench laments the being robbed of "a dainty race of ginger;" and in the old play of The famous victories of Henry the fifth, a clown charges a thief with having "taken the great race of ginger, that bouncing Besse with the jolly buttocks should have had." In Beaumont and Fletcher's Knight of the burning pestle, the citizen's wife gives a man who had [Pg 89] been soundly beaten some green ginger to comfort him. Ginger was used likewise to spice ale. ”

“ If your family be large, and the beer will be drank rapidly, it may as well remain in the barrel; but if your family be small, fill what bottles you have with it; it keeps better bottled. A raw potato or two, cut up and thrown in, while the ingredients are boiling, is said to make beer spirited.
Ginger beer is made in the following proportions:—One cup of ginger, one pint of molasses, one pail and a half of water, and a cup of lively yeast. Most people scald the ginger in half a pail of water, and then fill it up with a pailful of cold; but in very hot weather some people stir it up cold. ”

“ For a large quantity of ginger beer the following is a good recipe:—Five pounds of sugar, a quarter of a pound of cream of tartar, half a pound of whole ginger, (bruised) , three or four bird’s eye chilies, six lemons sliced, or the same number of oranges; if Seville or poor man’s oranges are used, it gives the beer a pleasingly bitter taste. Over these ingredients pour five gallons of boiling water, stir well, and, when cool, toast a piece of bread very brown, let it float on the liquid, and pour about half a bottle of good yeast over it. ”

“ It is of very hot, acrid, and very pungent Taste; but Aromatic withal, and of a very agreeable Smell. We have it both from the East and West Indies; but the oriental is much superior to the occidental in its Flavour, of a firmer Substance, and does not beat out so much into Threads. Ginger is an excellent Carminative and Stomachic; it assists Digestion, dispells Flatus’s, and takes off Cholic Pains almost instantaneously. ”

“ A cup of good tea is one of the most wholesome beverages one can take in warm weather. It exhilarates, it cools, and while it cools the body it calms the mind.
Lime or lemon juice and water make a good drink. It should be sipped.
Ginger beer is somewhat too gassy for a delicate stomach. Raspberry syrup in water, acidulated to taste with a little citric acid, is very refreshing, and the same may be said of many other of the fruit syrups.
Raspberry vinegar is made by placing three pounds of the picked fruit into a glass vessel and pouring over them a pint and a half of white wine vinegar. ”

“ The dried roots of this plant are either white, from the lime employed to prevent their destruction by vermin; or blueish, brown, or black, according to the soil in which they have been cultivated: they are of eminent use, both for culinary and medical purposes, affording one of the most wholesome and agreeable spices. Hence ginger in entire pieces is often boiled in beer, and drunk by persons who are obliged to spend part of their time in cold, open air. It is more immediately serviceable in cold flatulent colics ”

“ The dealers frequently ‘dress up’ the common dark-coloured gingers by washing them in water, drying them, and then ‘rouncing’ them in a bag with a little calcined whiting or magnesia (WASHED GINGER) ; or they bleach them by dipping them into a solution of chloride of lime, or by exposing them to the fumes of burning sulphur (BLEACHED GINGER) ; or they dip them into a milk formed of quicklime or whiting and water (WHITE-WASHED GINGER) . The last has a chalk-white surface, which cannot be mistaken for the natural one. Powdered ginger is with difficulty obtained pure and good. ”

“ By boiling, the ginger loses a portion of its essential oil; and its black colour is owing to this.
The uses of ginger, both in medicine, and as a spice, are numerous and well known. In the West Indies this root is frequently eaten fresh in salads, and with other food: and the roots when dug up young, namely, at the end of three or four months after they have been planted, are preserved in syrup, and exported as a sweet-meat to nearly all parts of the world. The ginger which is brought into this country from the East Indies is much stronger than any we have from Jamaica. ”

“ And was the little boy allowed to eat the apple afterwards?
Master Tommy's Receipts.— (Household ginger beer.) —Empty the kitchen spice-box, two pounds of washing soda, a pint of petroleum, and all the wine left in the dining-room decanters over night, into the cistern, and stir freely in the dark with a mop from the staircase window. When the water comes in in the morning, the whole household will be supplied from every tap for four-and-twenty hours with capital ginger beer.
In Distress.—Mummy! Mummy! Come back! I'm frightened. Here's a horrid dog staring at me with his teeth. ”

“ When used to excess, however, it is very dangerous, as it slowly destroys the lining of the stomach and causes lingering pain and agonizing death.
Ginger contains a great deal of alcohol. This fact accounts for the formation of the so-called ginger habit to which the victim becomes a slave as to the whiskey, opium, or tobacco habit. Indulgence in this habit is more dangerous because ginger is supposed to be harmless.
A careful qualitative examination of the character of the extracts at times may reveal the presence of an adulterant, but the chief dependence is examination under the microscope. ”

“ Thus, in England a great deal of malt spirit is made from a kind of wort brought into fermentation, and then set directly to distil, without first making ale or beer of it. Gin is a spirituous liquor also got from corn, and flavoured with juniper berries. Even potatoes, carrots, and turnips, may be made to afford spirits, by first fermenting their juices. In the West Indies, rum is distilled from the dregs of the sugarcanes, washed out by water and fermented. But brandy is distilled from the fermented juice of the grape, and is made in the wine countries. ”

“ So far as I have observed, the quality of the liquor has but little to do with the question of drunkenness. In some localities where prohibition has been strictly enforced we find that the class who will have liquor is obtaining it in other than the well-known commercial forms. Frequently we find that large quantities of extract of ginger are being consumed. A number of cases have been brought against the venders of this article, as an alcoholic beverage containing more than one per cent of alcohol. These cases have generally proved successful in stopping its sale. ”

“ When the infusion has all run through boil it up, and pour it over 2 oz. more coffee. Put the infusion thus obtained to 1 pint sweetened cream or custard and freeze.
Ginger Ice Cream.—Make a custard of 1 pint cream and 4 eggs put to it. Cut up in small pieces 2 oz. preserved ginger, add sufficient ground ginger to flavour well, and syrup or sugar to taste. Stir occasionally until cold, and put it into the freezing pot. Care should be taken to use fresh and good ground ginger, as otherwise it is apt to impart a mouldy kind of flavour. ”

“ Ginger Wine.—Take one quart of 95 per cent. alcohol, and put into it one ounce of best ginger root (bruised and not ground) , five grains of capsicum, and one drachm of tartaric acid. Let stand one week and filter. Now add one gallon of water, in which one pound of crushed sugar has been boiled. Mix when cold. To make the color, boil 1⁄2 ounce of cochineal, 3⁄4 ounce of cream tartar, 1⁄2 ounce of saleratus, and 1⁄2 ounce alum in a pint of water till you get a bright red color. ”