1869 Drinking Cups and their Customs (Mixellany)

CUPS 1NB THEIR CUSTOMS.

23

Ambergris

. . . . . . . .

5 grs.

Musk . . . . . . . . . 2 grs. Infuse these for twenty-four hours^ then put a pound of sugar to a quart of red wine or eider 5 and drop three or four drops of the infusion into It, and it will make it taste richly. M This compound was usually given at marriage festival when it was introduced at the com- mencement of the banquet^ served hot; for it is said to be of so comforting and generous a nature that the stomach would be at once put into good temper to enjoy the meats provided. Hypocras (so called from a particular bag through which it was strained) was also a favourite winter beverage j and we find in an old almanac of 1699 the lines— HypocraSj however, is mentioned as early as the 14th century. From this period we select our champion of compound drinks in no less a personage than the noblest courtier of Queen Bess; fer^ among other legacies of prie% Sir Walter Ealeigh has handed down to us a recipe for €i Cordial Water/' which, in its simplicity and good- ness, stands alone among the compounds of the age. €e Take/* says he, fe a gallon of strawberries and put them into a pint of aqua vitse; let them stand four days, then strain them gently off, and sweeten the liquor as it pleaseth thee, JJ This beverage, though somewhat too potent for modern palates, may, by proper dilution, be rendered no unworthy cup even in the present age. Prom the same noble hand we get a recipe for Sack # (t Sack, Hypocras, now^ anil "burnt Tbrandy Are drinks as good and warm as can be."