Soyer’s Cheap Crimean Lemonade, Lime Juice, Sugar and Water from 1857
Reader ratingsTwo tablespoons of sugar stirred for a minute with lime juice, then a pint of cold water: the lemonade without lemons that the chef Alexis Soyer gave the Scutari hospitals and the camp.
- Recipe makes
- About 600 ml, 1 large glass or 2 small
- Prep
- Total
Soyer’s cheap lemonade of sugar, lime juice and water in a pressed-glass tumbler, with half a lime and brown sugar.
The story behind the recipe
Soyer’s Cheap Crimean Lemonade is lemonade with no lemons in it: two tablespoons of sugar stirred for a minute with half a tablespoon of lime juice, then a pint of cold water. Alexis Soyer, the London chef who rewrote the hospital diets at Scutari in 1855, printed it in 1857 in Soyer’s Culinary Campaign, for the hospitals and the camp “if lemons are not to be obtained.”
Made from the rations
He said the recipe had been submitted to eminent doctors at Scutari and approved. Its lime juice was the army’s own, issued every day against scurvy, and so was the rum in Soyer’s last line: “A drop of rum will make a good variation, as lime juice and rum are daily issued to the soldiers.” His plain lemonade on the page before uses a third of a lemon’s peel as well as its juice, because without the rind, he wrote, lemonade is “deprived of the aroma which the rind contains.” The hospital kitchens and his teapot are told in Lemonade, Rice Water and a Better Teapot: Soyer at Scutari.
Read more about this recipe
Making it today
Army lime juice was probably stronger than fresh juice, which would explain why Soyer needed only half a tablespoon to the pint. Start with his amount and add up to a tablespoon more to taste. A British pint is about 570 ml, two good glasses. As printed it is alcohol-free and about 100 kcal for the whole pint, nearly all from the sugar. Soyer’s drop of rum, a tablespoon of 40% rum in the pint, would make it about 1% ABV. For his other hospital drinks, try Soyer’s Rice Water.
No. 21.—Soyer’s Cheap Crimean Lemonade. Put into a basin 2 tablespoonfuls of white or brown sugar, ½ a tablespoonful of lime juice, mix well together for one minute, add 1 pint of water, and the beverage is ready. A drop of rum will make a good variation, as lime juice and rum are daily issued to the soldiers.
Recipe makes: About 600 ml, 1 large glass or 2 small
Ingredients
For About 600 ml, 1 large glass or 2 small. Quantities are shown as written.
Quantities as written here, for About 600 ml, 1 large glass or 2 small.
- White or light brown sugar2 metric tbsp (15 ml per tbsp)
- Fresh lime juice1 1/2 metric tsp (5 ml per tsp)
- Cold water570 ml
Measurement notes
Ingredients as written here
- 2 tbsp white or light brown sugar
- 1 1/2 tsp fresh lime juice
- 570 ml cold water
Equipment
Small bowl
Spoon
Tall glass
Instructions
Put the white or light brown sugar and the fresh lime juice in a small bowl and stir them together for about a minute, until the sugar turns to a thick syrup.
Stir in the cold water until the sugar has dissolved.
Taste, add a little more lime juice if you like, and pour into a tall glass or two small ones.
Nutrition
50calories per serving
- Recipe makes
- About 600 ml, 1 large glass or 2 small
- Servings
- 2
Estimated from USDA FoodData Central values for sugar and lime juice, for two 300 ml glasses.
Recipe notes
When adjusting quantities
This is Soyer’s batch, one British pint. He also printed lemonades by the fifty pints; scale every ingredient the same way.
Notes
Quantities mentioned in these notes don’t change when you adjust the batch.
Half a tablespoon of lime juice is Soyer’s amount, written here as 1 1/2 tsp; more lime is our option. Brown sugar gives a pale tan drink, white sugar a clear one. Ice is our addition if you want it. For the rum variation, stir in 1 tbsp dark rum; then it is no longer alcohol-free.
Scaling changes the ingredients only; glassware, ice and timings need their own judgment. To adapt this recipe further, try the recipe tool at TuneMyRecipe (opens in a new tab), our sister site.
Sources and attribution
Alexis Soyer, Soyer’s Culinary Campaign (London: G. Routledge, 1857), p. 519, No. 21, “Soyer’s Cheap Crimean Lemonade”
Recipe details
- Drink
- Alcohol-free
- Drink family
- Sodas & Soft Drinks
- Region
- British
- Era
- 19th century
- Base
- Fruit & juice
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Season
- Summer