Recipes
Drinks from the old books, with and without alcohol. Each one names its source and scales to the size of your party.
Drinks from the old books.
Or start from what you have at home217–228 of 228 recipes
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Passum, Roman Raisin Wine
Crushed raisins soaked in wine for five days and pressed: Columella’s raisin wine, made with shop raisins and a bottle of white.
Always alcohol-freePosca, the Roman Soldier’s Vinegar Drink
Wine vinegar stirred into cold water: the sour, cheap drink of Roman soldiers and slaves, alcohol-free and ready in a minute.
Posset Ale, Hot Milk Curdled with Ale
Very hot milk poured onto cold ale and left to set into soft curds in a warm whey, sweetened with honey and strewn with cinnamon and ginger.
Rosatum, Roman Rose Wine
White wine steeped with fresh rose petals three times over, a week at a time, then sweetened with honey: the rose wine of Apicius.
Always alcohol-freeRose Water, a Tudor Still-Room Drink
Red rose water drunk by the ounce, as Brunschwig’s distilling book of 1527 doses it, lengthened with cold water into a pale, scented drink. Alcohol-free.
Always alcohol-freeSaloop with Milk
Hot milk poured onto a smooth paste of arrowroot and sugar and stirred until lightly thick: the milk saloop of an 1821 vegetarian cookbook that also renounced drink.
Sidecar, Brandy, Cointreau and Lemon
Harry MacElhone’s Sidecar, printed in London in late 1923 or after: brandy, Cointreau and lemon in equal parts, sharper and more orange-led than the brandy-heavy version poured today.
South Side, Gin, Lemon and Mint
Gin, lemon, sugar and fresh mint, shaken and topped with soda in a tumbler: the South Side as Harry MacElhone printed it in 1923, before the gangster stories.
Always alcohol-freeTea the Chinese Way, with a Little Sugar
Green tea in just-boiled water in a covered pot, drunk when the leaves sink, with a little sugar against the bitterness: tea as Europe learned it in 1685.
Always alcohol-freeWater Gruel, a Medieval Oat Drink for the Sick
Oat groats simmered in boiled water with honey and strained into a thin, warm drink: the sober half of a 15th-century cookery poem’s advice ‘For seke menne.’
Always alcohol-freeWhey, the Drink Left Over from Cheese
The thin, pale liquid that runs from fresh curds, made safely at home from pasteurized milk and rennet and drunk cold: a Tudor drink of shepherds and the poor.
White Lady, Brandy and Mint Cocktail
Harry MacElhone’s earliest printed White Lady had no gin: two-thirds Cointreau with a little brandy and crème de menthe, and no citrus at all.
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Absinthe Frappé, Shaken until the Shaker Frosts
A pony of absinthe and a pony of water with a dash of anisette, shaken with fine ice until the shaker frosts, strained and topped with seltzer: the absinthe frappé of 1895.
Absinthium Romanum, Roman Wormwood Wine
Apicius’s Roman vermouth: mild white wine steeped for a day with wormwood, mastic, bay and saffron, unsweetened and bitter by design.
Always alcohol-freeAdynamon, Pliny’s Wine Without Strength
White grape must boiled with half its volume of water until the water is gone: the Roman ‘wine’ given to people who were not allowed wine. Alcohol-free.