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Fun-to-Serve Colonial Beverages with a PunchSpice up Summer Parties with Drinks from Colonial American RecipesMake a hit at back yard barbecues, family reunions or historical society garden parties by serving a drink whose history goes back to America's colonial era taverns.
Taverns became famous for such drinks as flip, cobblers, grog, syllabub, toddies, bounces and snagarees. Abbott Tavern in Holden, Massachusetts was noted for its flip. It kept loggerheads on the fire. They were poker-like rods thrust into mugs to heat Flip and give it the desired bitter tang. The Abbott recipe, handed down from ancestors who bought the tavern to descendant Libby Logan of Texas, appeared in The Rice Family News-Journal in 1973. Recipe for Flip"Break three eggs in a quart flip mug. Add three teaspoons of sugar and stir well. Beat eggs briskly while pouring in a jigger of old Medford rum and a jigger of brandy. Now fill the mug with beer. Thrust a red-hot loggerhead in the mug. The foaming, hissing result is Abbott's Flip." To be traditional, serve in an all-pewter mug. A substitute for the loggerhead is a fireplace poker heated in a barbecue grill’s glowing charcoal. What Rum Smugglers DrankThe Gaspee Days Committee in Rhode Island has collected several recipes for old drinks in tandem with commemorating the burning in 1772 by area patriots of the destested British revenue schooner HMS Gaspee. This “first blow for freedom” is celebrated every year. Many of those same colonists were involved in rum and gin smuggling. What they drank reflected those activities. Common ingredients were gin, brandy, Medford (dark) rum, port wine (sack), bourbon, rye, and bitters. Cobblers are of American origin and are favorites in warm climates. Hot drinks included hot buttered rum, Tom & Jerry and hot brandy sling with nutmeg; the mulls included mulled cider and hot applejack. Here are recipes for champagne cobbler and fish house punch. Cobbler to DrinkFor champagne cobbler, mix 1/3 glass crushed ice, ½ teaspoon powdered sugar, one orange peel and fill with dry champagne. Decorate with fruit; serve with a straw. Make it sherry cobbler by half filling a tall glass with cracked ice, use one tablespoon powdered sugar, fill with sherry, stir with spoon until glass is frosted and decorate with fruit. Make fish house punch by dissolving3/4 pound sugar in a little water in a punch bowl. Add bottle of lemon juice, two bottles Jamaican rum, one bottle cognac, six to eight cups water and a half cup of peach cordial. Put big cake of ice in punch bowl and let stand two hours, stirring occasionally. Recipe makes about 60 four-ounce glasses full. Origin of GrogOld tavern bills of fare usually include grog. This is any mix of spirits and water, but the alcohol is usually rum. It is named forRoyal Navy Admiral Edward Vernon (1684-1757) who in raw weather wore “grogram,” a coarse silk and mohair fabric. He is credited with first serving diluted spirits to English sailors. Syllabub, another common colonial drink, has roots in England and is mentioned three times in Samuel Pepys’ diaries during the 1660s. According to British Culture, British Customs, and British Traditions, “In the seventeenth century, a milkmaid would send a stream of new, warm milk directly from a cow into a bowl of spiced cider or ale. A light curd would form on top with a lovely whey underneath.” That was the original version. Later versions mixed sherry and/or brandy, sugar, lemon, nutmeg and double cream into either a custard-like dessert, or something similar to eggnog, depending upon the cook or the occasion. None of these drinks were called cocktails, but they pack the same punch!
The copyright of the article Fun-to-Serve Colonial Beverages with a Punch in Beverage Recipes is owned by Rosemary E. Bachelor. Permission to republish Fun-to-Serve Colonial Beverages with a Punch in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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