Cherry Bounce – Cherry Juice Recipe

Cherry Bounce (Juice)
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Cherry Bounce (Cherry Juice Recipe)

0 from 0 votes Only logged in users can rate recipes
Course: DrinksCuisine: American
Servings

25

servings
Calories

300

kcal
Total time

0

minutes

How to make a delicious Cherry Bounce.

Ingredients

  • 12 cups Tart Cherry Juice

  • 1 bottle 100 Proof Apple Brandy

  • 6 cups Simple Syrup/Sugar

  • 1 whole Cinnamon Stick

  • 4 whole Cloves

  • 1 tbsp Bitter Almond Extract

  • 2 tbsp Vanilla Extract

Directions

  • Technique: Infusion
  • To a bottle of high-proof apple brandy, add a cinnamon stick, cloves, vanilla extract, and bitter almond extract. Let this sit for 24 to 48 hours.
  • Strain spices out of the brandy and mix the apple brandy with cherry juice and sugar. Serve.

Featured Video

What Is Cherry Bounce?

Traditional Cherry Bounce appears to be the sweetened alcoholic liqueur infused with tart cherries. It takes around six months to make brandied cherries, so simultaneously, a quicker cherry bounce recipe existed for mixing brandy and cherry juice. According to the Routledge Dictionary of Historical Slang, the earliest known reference to Cherry Bounce comes from the 1693 Robertson’s Phraseologia Generalis. In Robertson’s Phraseologia Generalis (A Latin text on general English phrases), the drink is referred to as “Cherry-Bouncer” and only mentioned it as a mixed drink. The next mention of it comes from the George Washington family. A recipe for cherry bounce was found in a stack of Martha Washingtons’ papers written on George Washingtons’ watermarked stationery. The recipe was in neither George nor Martha’s handwriting, and it is unknown who wrote it. The recipe is as follows:

“To Make Excellent Cherry Bounce. Extract the juice of 20 pounds well ripend morrella cherrys Add to this 10 quarts of old french brandy and sweeten it with white sugar to your taste—To 5 Gallons of this mixture add one ounce of spice such as cinnamon, cloves and Nutmegs of each an Equal quantity slightly bruisd and a pint and half of cherry kirnels that have been gently broken in a mortar—After the liquor has fermented let it stand close-stoped for a month or six weeks then bottle it remembering to put a lump of Loaf Sugar into each bottle.”

During the 19th century, a few drinks and cookbooks mention cherry bounce but not many. Some books state to sweeten the cherry liqueur, and others say to mix cherry juice with spices and brandy. Not to say all recipes adhered to this structure, but the trend I noticed was cherry bounce recipes made from the cherry-infused liqueur only sweetened the liqueur, and recipes that called for mixing cherry juice, sugar, and brandy also added spices. I don’t know if there was a reason for that, but that was consistent. One of the best recipes for a cherry bounce comes from the 1892 Encyclopaedia of Practical Cookery. The author provides both an infused recipe and a cherry juice recipe that also sticks to the trend of only spicing the cherry juice. The recipe below is the cherry liqueur recipe from that book.

Does Cherry Bounce Need To Be Refrigerated?

It depends on which recipe you make whether cherry bounce needs to be refrigerated. Cherry bounce made with juice should be refrigerated. While it does have alcohol in it, it’s not enough to stop the growth of bacteria. If it’s the cherry infusion recipe, it does not need to be refrigerated while it soaks, so long as the cherries are fully submerged. Every old recipe I have found for a cherry bounce that uses the infusion method does not refrigerate them, but if you have a refrigerator, why not use it? Home refrigeration started becoming common in the 1930s, so while it wasn’t an option for many folks making cherry bounce in the 19th century, it is for you. And keeping it in the fridge takes the worry out of storing it. There is no downside to keeping it in the refrigerator.

Two Different Ways To Make Cherry Bounce.

This is the quicker cherry juice recipe for making cherry bounce. If you want the brandied cherry infusion recipe, you can find that one here.

I first heard of cherry bounce from a website saying it was George Washington’s favorite drink. After researching the drink a bit, I kept coming across two different ways of making the same drink. One recipe would add cherry juice to brandy, sugar, and spices; the other was to make brandied cherries and drink the sweetened liqueur. I was trying to decide which was the right way to make it. Still, after a bit of reading and checking my sources, I believe both ways are correct—the Encyclopaedia of Practical Cookery by Theodore Garrett list both methods as ways of making cherry bounce. The 7-volume Encyclopaedia of Practical Cookery is a very high-quality resource. It is such a well-written, thorough, and culinarily educated book that I will take it for its word.

I get the impression the liqueur version is the older of the two and was invented out of a desire not to waste the boozy juice left over from preserving cherries. The juicing method was developed as a quick way to make the drink without waiting six months and make a more drinkable version of it. If you want to compare the two, the one made with cherry juice is fruiter and much easier to drink. The infused version is more like a cherry old-fashioned.

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Cherry Bounce – Cherry Infusion Recipe

Cherry Bounce (Infusion)
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Cherry Bounce (Infusion Recipe)

0 from 0 votes Only logged in users can rate recipes
Course: DrinksCuisine: American
Servings

1

servings
Calories

120

kcal
Total time

3

minutes

How to make a traditional Cherry Bounce.

Ingredients

  • 2 oz Cherry Bounce Liqueur

  • 1/2 oz Simple Syrup/Sugar

  • Optional Spices

Directions

  • Technique: Simple Stir
  • Combine all ingredients in the mixing glass.
  • Add ice to the mixing glass.
  • Stir the ingredients for 10 – 15 seconds. Try to avoid over-diluting the drink.
  • Strain into a glass.

Featured Video

What Is Cherry Bounce?

Traditional Cherry Bounce appears to be the sweetened alcoholic liqueur infused with tart cherries. It takes around six months to make brandied cherries, so simultaneously, a quicker cherry bounce recipe existed for mixing brandy and cherry juice. According to the Routledge Dictionary of Historical Slang, the earliest known reference to Cherry Bounce comes from the 1693 Robertson’s Phraseologia Generalis. In Robertson’s Phraseologia Generalis (A Latin text on general English phrases), the drink is referred to as “Cherry-Bouncer” and only mentioned it as a mixed drink. The next mention of it comes from the George Washington family. A recipe for cherry bounce was found in a stack of Martha Washingtons’ papers written on George Washingtons’ watermarked stationery. The recipe was in neither George nor Martha’s handwriting, and it is unknown who wrote it. The recipe is as follows:

“To Make Excellent Cherry Bounce. Extract the juice of 20 pounds well ripend morrella cherrys Add to this 10 quarts of old french brandy and sweeten it with white sugar to your taste—To 5 Gallons of this mixture add one ounce of spice such as cinnamon, cloves and Nutmegs of each an Equal quantity slightly bruisd and a pint and half of cherry kirnels that have been gently broken in a mortar—After the liquor has fermented let it stand close-stoped for a month or six weeks then bottle it remembering to put a lump of Loaf Sugar into each bottle.”

During the 19th century, a few drinks and cookbooks mention cherry bounce but not many. Some books state to sweeten the cherry liqueur, and others say to mix cherry juice with spices and brandy. Not to say all recipes adhered to this structure, but the trend I noticed was cherry bounce recipes made from the cherry-infused liqueur only sweetened the liqueur, and recipes that called for mixing cherry juice, sugar, and brandy also added spices. I don’t know if there was a reason for that, but that was consistent. One of the best recipes for a cherry bounce comes from the 1892 Encyclopaedia of Practical Cookery. The author provides both an infused recipe and a cherry juice recipe that also sticks to the trend of only spicing the cherry juice. The recipe below is the cherry liqueur recipe from that book.

Does Cherry Bounce Need To Be Refrigerated?

It depends on which recipe you make whether cherry bounce needs to be refrigerated. Cherry bounce made with juice should be refrigerated. While it does have alcohol in it, it’s not enough to stop the growth of bacteria. If it’s the cherry infusion recipe, it does not need to be refrigerated while it soaks, so long as the cherries are fully submerged. Every old recipe I have found for a cherry bounce that uses the infusion method does not refrigerate them, but if you have a refrigerator, why not use it? Home refrigeration started becoming common in the 1930s, so while it wasn’t an option for many folks making cherry bounce in the 19th century, it is for you. And keeping it in the fridge takes the worry out of storing it. There is no downside to keeping it in the refrigerator.

Two Different Ways To Make Cherry Bounce.

This is the 6-month-long whole cherry infusion recipe for making cherry bounce. If you want the cherry juice recipe, you can find that one here.

I first heard of cherry bounce from a website saying it was George Washington’s favorite drink. After researching the drink a bit, I kept coming across two different ways of making the same drink. One recipe would add cherry juice to brandy, sugar, and spices; the other was to make brandied cherries and drink the sweetened liqueur. I was trying to decide which was the right way to make it. Still, after a bit of reading and checking my sources, I believe both ways are correct—the Encyclopaedia of Practical Cookery by Theodore Garrett list both methods as ways of making cherry bounce. The 7-volume Encyclopaedia of Practical Cookery is a very high-quality resource. It is such a well-written, thorough, and culinarily educated book that I will take it for its word.

I get the impression the liqueur version is the older of the two and was invented out of a desire not to waste the boozy juice left over from preserving cherries. The juicing method was developed as a quick way to make the drink without waiting six months and make a more drinkable version of it. If you want to compare the two, the one made with cherry juice is fruiter and much easier to drink. The infused version is more like a cherry old-fashioned.

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Clarified Milk Punch – Fast & Easy Recipe

Clarified Milk Punch
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Quick Step-by-Step Clarified Milk Punch Recipe Video

English Milk Punch

5 from 1 vote Only logged in users can rate recipes
Course: DrinksCuisine: American
Servings

15

servings
Calories

180

kcal
ABV

19%

Total time

2

hours 

Learn how to make English Milk Punch.

Ingredients

  • 1 Cup Lemon Juice

  • 1/2 Cup Simple Syrup

  • 2 Cups Water

  • 1 Teaspoon Nutmeg

  • 1 Bottle Brandy

  • 1.5 Cups Milk

  • 1/4 tsp Calcium Chloride

  • 1/4 table Rennet

Directions

  • Technique: Milk Clarification
  • Using a peeler, cut the zest of 5 lemons, add the shaved zest to the brandy and let it sit for 24 to 48 hours.
  • Juice the peeled lemons to the required volume. Set juice aside.
  • Add calcium chloride to milk the night before you plan to use it to clarify your milk punch.
  • Combine water, nutmeg, lemon juice, sugar, and brandy in a large pot with the lemon peels filtered out: everything but the milk and rennet.
  • Once the sugar is dissolved, add the rennet and then pour the milk. Stir the mixture for 10 seconds, then let it sit for 30 minutes undisturbed. The rennet needs time to work fully.
  • Line a mesh strainer with a large paper coffee filter and strain out cheese, letting the clear whey run into a large pot.
  • Bottle, refrigerate and serve cold.

Recipe Video

The History Of Clarified/English Milk Punch.

The typical origin story of English Milk Punch, also known as Clarified Milk Punch, is provided in David Wondrich’s book “Punch” is the Clarified Milk Punch was invented by Mary Rockett. This cocktail seems to have been designed to preserve milk punch by curdling and removing the parts that go bad and would turn the drink. The alcohol and milk fats protect the drink from spoiling. When Charles Dickens Died, there is a story that months-old bottles of milk punch were found in his cellar still good. The recipe I have provided here is the classic Benjamin Franklin English milk punch from 1763.

The Clarified or English milk punch started to fade in the middle of the 1800s, and by the 1900s, there wasn’t a single book that mentioned it. The invention of commercial refrigeration in the mid-1800s meant people could now get their drinks cold even in the middle of summer. Hot cocktails, room temperature cocktails, and preserved cocktails like this fall out of favor with chilled beverages. Jerry Thomas gave one of the last printed recipes for it, and he is very similar to Benjamin Franklin’s recipe.

What Does English Milk Punch Taste Like?

This tastes absolutely nothing like what you would expect, and it should not taste as good as it does. English milk punch is refreshing and tastes like limoncello. You would never guess this was the byproduct of cheese. I’m usually pretty good at tasting something and thinking about what is in it or reading a list of ingredients and knowing what the final product will taste like, not all the time but enough. Still, I was utterly wrong when guessing what English milk punch would taste like. This is a fantastic drink that blew me away and one I will make many more times.

Just for fun, I also tried the leftover cheese strained out of the milk punch, which tastes EXACTLY like what you would expect. A sweet and sour, booze cheese, and it was so gross. If you make this, which you should, try both the cheese and the punch, and you will be amazed they both came from the same mixture.

How Does Milk Clarify?

By making cheese, of course. Milk is made mainly of 4 things, water, protein (cheese), fat, and lactose (sugar), and by denaturing/cooking the protein, you can isolate it. When the milk protein casein joins with other casein, it forms a large pentagon-shaped ring that captures particles in the mixture. Cooking can be done in two ways, with heat or acid. Typically when making cheese, you keep the protein part and throw out the whey, but this cocktail reverses that, and instead, you save the whey (water, sugar, and some protein) part. By removing the cloudy white protein, what is left is the clear pale yellow liquid. That is not to say English milk punch is easy to make. Making cheese is not difficult. What is difficult is making cheese that produces clear whey. I have made and experimented with this enough that, hopefully, I can make this easier for you.

Why Is My Milk Punch Cloudy?

The cloudiness most people see after filtering milk punch for the first time are tiny homogenized milk fats designed to stay emulsified in regular store-bought milk. The issue with old-fashioned milk punch recipes is that the milk we use today is not the same as from the 18th and 19th centuries. Today’s milk is engineered to be perfectly emulsified with tiny milk fats and pasteurized to have a long shelf life. Benjamin Franklin used raw, unpasteurized milk with large fat globules forming a cream on the top and making milk punch 200 years ago much easier to make than it is today. Most how-to videos or online guides suggest filtering the milk punch multiple times, and it takes all night to clarify. That is a result of modern milk. Benjamin Franklin could filter his once with perfect results in just a few minutes. If you live by a farm and have access to raw milk, that’s great, but most of us can only get store-bought homogenized and pasteurized milk. The homogenized fat is mechanically formed by using a machine to smash and blend the fats into tiny particles. Sodium chloride is added to prevent the fats from forming back together. Here are a few things you can do to make engineered modern milk behave more like raw milk and get a clear milk punch on a quick first filter.

How To Make English Milk Punch The Easy Way.

To undo the science in modern milk, one must use science. The main disadvantages of using regular milk instead of raw milk to make clarified milk punch are:

  • Pasteurized milk proteins form a weaker curd. A strong curd clarifies the whey better.
  • Milk fats are homogenized into smaller parts, and sodium chloride is added to emulsify them.

All store-bought milk is pasteurized, so there is no getting around that. Pasteurization is the light heating of milk over a long period to kill all the bacteria and give it a longer shelf life. The problem is heating the milk denatures the proteins causing their amino acid chains to unfold. Once they unfold, that’s it, and if they don’t form a curd at that moment, they won’t create one later. If you have made meringue, it’s similar to how pasteurized egg whites will never fluff up. There is still enough undamaged protein that pasteurized milk works, but uncooked raw milk would be ideal. And forget about using ultra-pasteurized milk. All the proteins have been cooked, and it’s impossible to make curd with ultra-pasteurized milk.

Adding an appropriate amount of calcium chloride helps negate the effects of sodium chloride. This allows the milk fats to form back together into larger particles and helps the curdled proteins form a stronger curd. Those tiny homogenized milk fats are what most people see clouding up their milk punch. It’s similar to the cloud that forms in an absinthe drip. Calcium chloride can be added right before using it, but it’s much more effective if it’s allowed to sit in the milk overnight and rectify to the milk’s un-homogenized nature. Larger milk fats will get better caught in a filter, and a curd matrix will grab more particles without breaking down as easily.

Casein forming a cheese curd and capturing particles

Another trick is to add a little rennet immediately before pouring the milk in. Long story short, rennet helps curdle the proteins. Rennet is an enzyme added by cheese makers and has been used for hundreds of years. The primary protein in milk is casein micelle. The ends of casein are negatively charged and repel other negatively charged casein molecules. Rennet (chymosin) cuts the negative ends off, leaving the casein molecules with positively charged ends. The positive-charged ends bond to the negatively charged calcium and other particles in the mix, forming a bridge to bond with other casein. Five casein molecules form a pentagon matrix that traps other large particles. All of this comes together as the mechanism that clarifies a milk punch. Acid also cuts the negative ends of casein off, but rennet does a much better job. Also, buy vegan rennet. The way animal-derived rennet is made is horrible, and fermentation-derived vegan rennet is more effective.

Another tip for getting a clear milk punch is to add the milk last. I’ve experimented with the order, and the best clarification only happens when the milk is added last. This has to do with the concentration of proteins to each other once they start curdling. If the milk and water, alcohol, tea, or whatever you are mixing are combined, the proteins are too far apart and diluted to link up nicely. First, combine all your ingredients, and then pour the milk at the end. I can’t explain scientifically why this works other than it’s been my constant observation.

The last tip I have is to heat the milk once you have combined everything and poured the milk in. Heat is not necessary for the curdling process. Rennet and acid handle that well enough, but light heating will cause the curdled cheese to melt slightly and bond into larger, stronger curds. Fresh cheese melts at a very low 80°F (26°C), so a light heating to 90°F (32°C) will help the curds bond into even larger curds which will filter out easier.

All these tips come together to make a clarified milk punch that’s as easy as it was for Benjamin Franklin. Filter once, and in 40 minutes, you will have half a gallon of clarified punch. I came up with technique because most recipes you find online took way too long, and the level of effort involved was unreasonable. Having some experience making cheese, I decided to apply cheese-making techniques to this drink and make it faster and easier. Most of these tips are procedural. The only items to buy are calcium chloride and rennet, which can easily and cheaply be purchased online. The rennet and calcium chloride also has no effect on the taste and are picked up by the curds and filtered out. Any calcium left behind is also probably healthy for you too. I hope I have contributed something meaningful to the world of mixology with this and that it allows more people to enjoy this drink. Enjoy!

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Hot Toddy – Colonial Recipe & History

Hot Toddy
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Quick Step-By-Step Hot Toddy Recipe Video

Hot Toddy

0 from 0 votes Only logged in users can rate recipes
Course: DrinksCuisine: American
Servings

1

servings
Calories

180

kcal
ABV

10%

Total time

3

minutes

Learn how to make a vintage style hot toddy.

Ingredients

  • 2/3 oz Honey Syrup

  • 2 oz Gold Rum

  • 5 oz Water

Directions

  • Technique: Toddy Style Preparation
  • Combine honey and rum into heat resistant or ceramic mug.
  • Add hot water and stir or add room temperature water and dip a hot toddy rod in. Stir with the rod as the water boils.
  • Garnish:
  • Dusting of nutmeg.

Recipe Video

Notes

The History Of The Hot Toddy.

Many of these old drinks that we still make today are hard to find information on—hot buttered rum, hot ale flip, buttered beer, toddies, etc. Most actual written recipes are from the mid-1800s and later. Books mainly were published for histories and stories, but skills and trades were just taught from master to apprentice. There were a few, but not like there is today. One tries to piecemeal as much as they can together.

In a 1769 book, “A Dissertation On The Oleum Palmae Christi,” by Peter Canvane mentions adding medicines to “warm milk punch, common punch, or toddy, in which a hot poker has been quenched.” as ways of administering medication to those who complain about the taste. (Total side note. All the older English writing has the long “S” character ( “ʃ” ), but I changed it to a standard “s” in the quote, it looks kinda like an f, but it’s just another symbol for s that we don’t use anymore. That’s why the Declaration of Independence looks like they spelled everything wrong.) In a 1783 fictional book “Smyth’s Tour of The United States” by J.F.D. Smyth notes that his character likes to “take a draught of Bumbo, or toddy, a liquor composed of water, sugar, rum, and nutmeg.” There was also a funny romance story from 1741 I found, where a beautiful lady walks into the kitchen and asks the lord of the house for a toddy. “Would you like it hot or cold? warm I replied.”

All silliness aside, the point I am trying to get at is that there is no actual formal recipe to make a toddy but the parts and qualities. There are as many toddies as there are people. The parts matter, so based on the works I referenced, let’s break those parts down.

  1. The first reference points to the colonial American way of heating drinks. Not by using a stove but by using a hot fireplace poker, often called a toddy rod or loggerhead. In a home setting, a stove probably was used as it was already fired up for cooking food, but in a tavern, it was more efficient to place iron rods in the already running fireplace. Rather than having a stove run all night to be ready for the occasional warm drink, they could dip the toddy rod into the drinks people request warmed.
  2. The second reference gives us the ingredient of the toddy. The four parts are water, sugar, rum, and nutmeg. Now any spice will do, but it is worth noting that only nutmeg is mentioned in the early 1862 Bartenders’ guide when adding spice toddies.
  3. The third reference shows us that toddies were served both hot and cold and sometimes warm. Now I am willing to bet that a cold toddy was not a heated one. Commercial refrigeration was not invented until the 1850s, so access to ice blocks was mainly limited to businesses. And while they did have ice houses that saved ice for most of the summer (some stayed in use up to the 1930s), something as special as the ice was not going to be wasted on a single drink.

So for this hot toddy recipe, I will stick to those points. It used only rum, water, sugar, and nutmeg. It was heated up with a toddy rod. Almost every recipe you find has lemon juice added it to add to its medicinal qualities, but since that is not traditional to the 18th or 19th century, I will leave it out and stick to the classic structure. On a fun side note, did you know the original name for the muddler was the toddy stick? That’s right, It was based on the pestle from the mortar and pestle but made of wood so it wouldn’t shatter glass cups. The shape was perfect for smashing together fruits, spices, and sugar cubes.

Do Hot Toddies Actually Help You Feel Better When You Are Sick?

So the short answer is, I guess… sure. The long answer is it depends on what ailment you hope to relieve. Western medicine has come a long way since the 18th century, but there are three reasons a person makes a hot toddy today other than tasting good. 1). When they have a soar throat. 2). When their sinuses are congested, and 3). It just feels nice to cozy up with one during the winter. The main health benefit of a hot toddy comes from honey; if you use sugar, you are missing most of the benefits of a hot toddy. Honey is pretty awesome nectar and has been shown to have anti-inflammatory properties. In some lab studies, if it is found to reduce pro-inflammatory cytokines, this combined with the warm steam from the drink can help reduce congestion as that is an inflammation of the sinuses. Or you can pop some Sudafed during the day and Benadryl at night, as those are some of the present-day gold standards of over-the-counter anti-inflammation medication.

Ignoring mechanical irritation of one’s throat like screaming a bunch, the most common reason for a sore throat is an infection, and the body’s natural response to infection is inflammation. So again, it’s honey with that anti-inflammatory response, or you could pop an ibuprofen or naproxen as they would be a more effective treatment. And the last point is it just feels good to cozy up with one, and it does. Being cozy makes you feel happy, but did you also know that nutmeg is a hallucinogen. The dose is so low that it’s hard to credit any effect on the brain to the nutmeg, but it does contain myristicin, making people trip in large amounts. Maybe that good feeling is just a psychedelic nut and alcohol-induced surface. Some people are susceptible to nutmeg and its active chemicals and get pounding headaches from even the smallest amount. So don’t ever use too much nutmeg, don’t use it to get high, and be careful as it can be dangerous in large doses. Make wise choices.

I will be using a traditional toddy rod, or as it is also called a loggerhead, to warm the hot toddy. A stove works too, but a toddy rod imparts a slightly toastier final flavor. If you are curious to learn more, check out this fantastic article that goes into early American toddy culture.

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Hot Buttered Rum – Colonial Recipe & History

Hot Buttered Rum
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Hot Buttered Rum

0 from 0 votes Only logged in users can rate recipes
Course: DrinksCuisine: American
Servings

1

servings
Calories

220

kcal
ABV

10%

Total time

3

minutes

Learn how to make a Hot Buttered Rum.

Ingredients

  • 2/3 oz Spiced Butter Batter

  • 2 oz Gold Rum

  • 6 oz Hot Water

Directions

  • Technique: Build In Glass
  • Drop spiced butter batter into a ceramic or heat-resistant mug.
  • Add hot water and stir till the butter is completely melted and incorporated into the water.
  • Lastly add the rum and give a couple last stirs to finish mixing the drink.

Notes

Featured Video

The History Of Hot Buttered Rum.

Adding butter to hot drinks was not new during colonial America. Butterbeer dates back to the 16th century, but hot buttered rum was an early American twist on this type of drink. In the Americas, rum and molasses were plentiful and reasonably cheap because of their proximity to the Caribbean. Rum was the first real spirit of the Americas, not whiskey. I looked high and low, but I could not find a hot buttered rum-like recipe till the 1860s with Jerry Thomas’s book. I scanned drink and food recipe books and eventually started looking for any historical book older than 1860 that might have a recipe or at least mention a hot buttered rum. Books would mention it but did not provide any form of a recipe. Trust me; I put more effort into this cocktail than any reasonable person should. I did find a mention of it in the 1826 edition of the Pennsylvanian Historical society. I mentioned how it is common for “good women” to have hot buttered rum, wines, and cordial water served to guests at birthing. And if the baby is unwell or fretful, a dose of spirit, water, and spices could help too. I found an 1855 British book called the Practical housewife, which gave a very similar recipe to the one provided but called the drink a buttered toddy. A book from 1830 named “Three Courses and a Dessert” mentions the hot butter rum and says how it’s a terrible meaty drink. I found this referred to as a buttered toddy a couple of times, but not much, the much more common name was still hot buttered rum.

Lord knows I tried, but the earliest I could find this drink mentioned was in the 1826 Pennsylvanian Historical society. The titles of most books that mention hot buttered rums were like the domestic such and such, housewife so and so, or friendly neighbor such and such. They all revolved around the house and made no mention of going out to a tavern, which made me think this was a homemade cocktail. This ultimately means its history is a bit muddy, and there is no single canon recipe, so take this recipe, modify it, and make it your own have fun.

What Does Hot Buttered Rum Taste Like?

This is a fantastic drink spiced well with great texture and flavor. The butter doesn’t come across as heavy or greasy. It adds a nice creamy mouthfeel similar to gum syrup, egg whites, or a full-bodied wine. This drink is not weak either. You can feel the warm rum but the light creamy butter and pumpkin pie spices make it pleasant and not too strong. When I was younger, I used to think of this drink as more of an overly sweet, almost milkshake-like, but it doesn’t have to be. And again, since there is no authentic single canon recipe for this, the recipe I have here is an amalgamation of older recipes I liked. The sweetness and spice toned down a bit with more rum. The 2 ounces of rum helps keep the drink from feeling flat, and the sugar and spice level makes it, so the drink tastes like a cocktail and not a dessert. The hot buttered rum batter is great on anything. I sometimes add it to coffee, on toast, biscuits, pancakes, etc. Add a little more sugar, spice, or butter if you feel the drink needs it. Here is the recipe for the batter, but feel free to check out my article on Spiced Butter Batter.

Spiced Butter Batter Recipe.

  • 1/4 tsp (1.5 g) Ground Cinnamon
  • 1/4 tsp (1.5 g) Ground Nutmeg
  • 1/4 tsp (1.5 g) Ground Clove
  • 1/4 tsp (1.5 g) Ground Allspice (or 1/2 tbs: Allspice dram)
  • 1/2 tsp (2.5 g) Vanilla extract 
  • 1/2 cup (120 g) Brown sugar
  • 1/2 cup (120 g) Unsalted butter
  1. On low heat or using a double boiler, melt the butter and turn off the heat. Don’t cook and separate the butter. Only melt the butter.
  2. Next, add all the other ingredients to the melted butter.
  3. Stir till the brown sugar has thoroughly mixed in. Cover spiced butter batter and refrigerate.

This recipe will make about a cup (240 grams) of spiced butter batter mix, about 12 drinks. This is good on biscuits, too, and my kids love this spread on toast.

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Eggnog – Traditional Recipe & History

Egg Nog Cocktail
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Eggnog

0 from 0 votes Only logged in users can rate recipes
Course: DrinksCuisine: American
Servings

1

servings
Calories

584

kcal
ABV

11%

Total time

3

minutes

Learn how to make the a classic Eggnog.

Ingredients

  • 1 dash Vanilla Extract

  • 1 Whole Egg White

  • 1/2 oz Simple Syrup

  • 6 oz Half u0026 Half

  • 1.5 oz Brandy

  • 1.5 oz Bourbon

Directions

  • Technique: Saxe Soda Shake
  • Combine all ingredients into a cocktail shaker.
  • Add one medium or two small ice cubes to the cocktail shaker and shake until the ice fully melts.
  • Without a strainer, pour the chilled and aerated drink into a glass.
  • Garnish:
  • Ground nutmeg

Notes

Featured Video

Some Variations On Eggnog.

There are countless eggnog recipes, and they all range from thick custard-like dairy drinks to non-alcoholic almond milk drinks and from really good store-bought to bad store-bought. A typical grocery store may sell well over a dozen different eggnogs during the holiday season. Although, you can have fun with eggnog when it’s homemade. Common homemade variations of eggnog are:

  1. Traditional no-cook eggnog. Like this recipe, most of your traditional eggnogs are not cooked but either shaken or beaten and drank right there or stored in the fridge for several days to develop more flavor.
  2. Modern cooked eggnog. Eggnogs started to get cooked due to the worry of food poisoning from consuming raw eggs. These tend to be very thick and custard-like and are the majority of most recipes today.
  3. Dairy-free eggnog. Typically made for lactose intolerance, these will replace the dairy with either coconut milk, almond milk, soy milk, oat milk, or other alternative milk. They also usually don’t have eggs, and most are also vegan.
  4. Egg-free eggnog. They are typically made for allergies, dietary, or just because some folks are grossed out by drinking eggs. Egg-free eggnogs exclude the eggs altogether and use heavy cream to provide a thicker texture.
  5. Vegan eggnog. Made for dietary and lifestyle choices, most of your dairy-free egg nogs are also vegan.
  6. Alcohol-free eggnog. Almost all store-bought eggnogs are alcohol-free unless bought at a liquor store. Typically purchased for their convenience, the option of adding alcohol or not, children can join in.

I love eggnog and have drank a ton of everything listed above. That being said, this 1862 Jerry Thomas recipe is the best eggnog I have ever had. THE BEST. This is not a sweet and thick recipe; it tastes like a slightly thicker milk punch. This recipe is ripped right from the 1862 Bartender’s guide. The only change I made was the addition of vanilla extract, cinnamon, and nutmeg. The original recipe did not have those ingredients, but I added them because they make the drink taste better and more in line with what someone expects eggnog to taste. This recipe is outstanding because it tastes exactly like you would expect eggnog to taste, but the texture is thinner and more like a standard cocktail. It may sound gross to crack an egg into your shaker, shake it up and drink it, but you will be blown away once you try this eggnog. Keep in mind that these are the original recipes that made eggnog famous.

How To Get Great Foam On Cocktails With Egg Whites.

Egg Whites are challenging to get right in cocktails. Everyone struggles with them at some point, and bartenders search for any way to make whipping them into a fluffy meringue easier. Henry Ramos hired “shaker boys” to shake for him. Some use the dry shake or reverse dry shake, others swear by only using one large ice cube, and some say you have to shake till your arms fall off. The method I like is called the Saxe Shake, and De Forest Saxe invented it in the 1880s.

The Saxe Shake is largely unknown in the cocktail world because De Forest Saxe was a soda fountain operator in Chicago, Illinois. His 1890 book “Saxe’s New Guide Hints to Soda Water Dispensers” details his shaking technique for egg drinks that produces the best foam and can be accomplished with minimal effort. Saxe states to shake drinks with eggs with only one chestnut-sized ice cube. An Ice cube from a standard ice tray is about chestnut-sized, so one or two small cubes will work. Then shake until the ice fully melts, and pour into the serving glass without straining. The small amount of ice is just enough to cool and dilute the drink, and since there are no remaining bits of ice left in the shaker, there is nothing to strain. Passing the mixture through a strainer destroys most of the bubbles you worked so hard to make. As you add soda water, the escaping carbon dioxide fills the tiny bubbles in the drink, forcing them to expand and form a large fluffy foam. Give it a try. Using the Saxe Shake, I have turned out Ramos Gin Fizzes as fast and efficiently as any other shaken cocktail with excellent results.

Is Eggnog Cooked Or Not?

Most eggnogs are cooked at low heat, refrigerated for a few days, and taste like custard or melted ice cream. This is done to ensure that all the germs are killed that could potentially cause food poisoning and because most people are super grossed out at the idea of drinking a raw egg. Cooking also adds quite a bit of time to making eggnog, and it can be challenging to prevent clumping from the egg whites cooking hence why most buy it these days. Although if you add thickened cornstarch to the eggs before cooking prevents the egg whites from forming large cooked groups. Most recipes say the cornstarch adds thickness, but it prevents the proteins from forming large bonds and making the eggnog chunky.

This is not that kind of recipe. This one is fast and easy to make. No cooking, just a bunch of shaking. Most of the ancient recipes I found are not the cooked custard kinds but recipes like this one. You can let this drink sit in the fridge for a few days to develop more flavor or drink it right away.

As a word of warning, use pasteurized eggs if you can. Pasteurized eggs are still raw like a regular egg but with all the germs killed off. Pasteurized eggs don’t make big foamy egg white heads like non-pasteurized eggs do, but you can be sure they won’t get you sick. The FDA guesstimates that 1 in every 40,000 eggs has salmonella, which is super rare. Pasteurized eggs are hard to find, so you can pasteurize them yourself or roll the dice. If you have one of those fancy sous vide devices. As someone who has had Salmonella poisoning before, without going into detail, I will say it is one of the most painful things I have ever experienced. Again 1 in every 40,000. So rare, and if you get Salmonella, you’re much more likely to get it the same way I did by eating contaminated food prepared by someone who didn’t wash their hands. I’ve eaten countless raw eggs and have never gotten sick from eggs once.

The History Of Eggnog.

There is no definitive answer to where eggnog came from. Many guess it is a descendant of a medieval drink called posset, a milk and beer drink that would sometimes have an egg added for extra creaminess and flavor. The Oxford English Dictionary canonized the word nog in the late 1600s to mean a strong ale. It was probably used by the general population much earlier than that, but that’s when it was officially recorded. The first use of the word Eggnog started popping up in the United States in the late 1700s. England had a similar drink, but it was called an Egg Flip. Over time it became linked to Christmas and is not made much outside of the winter holiday season.

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Hot Mulled Apple Cider – Traditional Recipe

Mulled Apple Cider Cocktail
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Dry Mulled Apple Cider

0 from 0 votes Only logged in users can rate recipes
Course: DrinksCuisine: American
Servings

1

servings
Calories

149

kcal
ABV

15%

Total time

3

minutes

Learn how to make a dry, boozy mulled apple cider.

Ingredients

  • 6.5 oz Honey

  • 1 bottle Apple Cider Wine

  • 8.5 oz Bourbon

  • 2 whole All Spice Berries

  • 3 whole Cloves

  • 1 peel Orange Rind

  • 1 whole Cinnamon Stick

Directions

  • Technique: Infusion
  • Add spices into a container with the fortifying spirit. Let the spices infuse into the brandy for 24 to 48 hours.
  • Before serving, gently heat the wine in a stovetop pot. Add sweetener and stir to dissolve. Do not boil.
  • Once the wine has warmed up, turn off the heat and add the spice-infused spirit mixture while straining out the spices. Discard the spices and serve.

Notes

Featured Video

Mulled Apple Cider came around 40 – 50 AD when the Romans made it to what is modern-day England. Brewed apple cider was a popular Celtic drink in the area, and the invading forces brought it back to Rome. The Romans had a tradition of brewing herbs into their wine (Hippocras) for flavor and medicinal properties. They applied that to cider, thus creating mulled or spiced cider. Read my apple cider ingredient description first but pick the cider you want based on what you want your final product to be most like and how you want to layer your flavors. I think the sparkling cider apple juice stuff is way too sweet. I save that for the kids. The orchard unfiltered apple juice stuff is pretty good but just a little too sweet. So you can’t add your sweeteners like maple syrup or honey etc. This limits your ability to add complexity. I prefer to make this with a semi-dry cider beer or still apple wine. These give you room to build more of your flavors and bring an excellent brewed and aged taste that the unfiltered stuff lacks. Regular cider-style beer works well for this too. The bubbles dissipate after a few minutes, and you just left with essentially a still apple wine. So before your next holiday party, get a variety pack of ciders. See what you like, and then buy a six-pack of the stuff. Also, a six-pack is almost equal to 3 bottles of wine, so keep that in mind, and don’t just add all six beers or adjust accordingly.

Next up is spices. Long story short, just read my mulling spices description. It can be summed up as not adding too much and sticking to just four different spices. Think cooking; you wouldn’t add a shit ton of salt or pepper to your fried eggs. It would be too much, so you do a light sprinkle. The same thing with this: add 2 or 3 cloves, three cinnamon sticks, etc. A little bit goes a very long way.

Next up is cooking. Most folks do this in a crockpot, so I would just set it to warm. High, low, and simmer are all too hot. Alcohol burns off at 173 f (78 c), and high, low, and simmer all go to around 180 – 200 f. High gets there faster than low and simmer, but warm only goes to 160 f. You can do a slow cooker if you want, but keep in mind that you will burn off most of the booze even at a warm temperature if you cook it for a long time. I think it boils better if you do it faster in a regular stovetop pot. Turn on the fire, pour it into the pot and quickly bring it to heat. If you have a thermometer, stop around 160 or till you start to see a light vapor coming off the top. Once your hooch is up to temp, drop it to low, add your sweetener and spices, and then cook for just 20 minutes. Most of the good flavors in your spices will come out in those first few minutes. Turn off the heat, add your bourbon, and serve. And that’s it. Serve it, put a lid on it, put it in a thermos, reheat it when you want more a little later, but stop the long-term higher temperature cooking. Some folks cook this stuff for hours, but I think that’s a little excessive. You won’t get any more good flavor out of it, and you will burn off the booze.

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Sangria – Classic Spanish Recipe

Sangria Cocktail
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Sangria

0 from 0 votes Only logged in users can rate recipes
Course: DrinksCuisine: Spanish
Servings

1

servings
Calories

157

kcal
ABV

15%

Total time

3

minutes

Learn how to make a classic Spanish Sangria.

Ingredients

  • 6 oz Simple Syrup

  • 8.5 oz Brandy

  • 1 Bottle Red Wine

  • 1 whole Green Apple

  • 1 whole Lemon

  • 1 whole Orange

Directions

  • Technique: Infusion
  • Cut slices of fruit that you would like to infuse into the Sangria.
  • Combine the sliced fruit, simple syrup, and brandy together and refrigerate for 4 to 5 hours.
  • Add wine. Serve in glass filled with ice.

Notes

Featured Video

Sangria is a Spanish fortified wine flavored with citrus and fruit. It is a very close cousin to mulled wine. The Romans loved to drink spiced wine that they called hippocras. Though Hippocras is flavored with mulling type spices like cinnamon or cloves, somewhere along the line, spiced wine in Spain became flavored with citrus and fruit instead. Since they are no longer trying to cook the flavor out of the spices, the wine is kept cool and infused with the citrus making this a cold beverage. It’s close to the word sange, which means blood in Spanish, or sangrando, which means bleeding, but I’ve only ever heard this word describe the drink. If you told a Spanish speaker you were bleeding and used the word sangria, they would be confused. So you may notice this is a milk punch, but I use half & half and not milk. Mixing with dairy is a pain in the ass, and that’s because alcohol, like acid, causes milk protein to bind together and make cheese. What protects the protein from tying together is fat. Regular milk doesn’t have enough fat, so you will make curds and whey punch every time instead. The trick is to balance the higher ABVs with the correct fat percentage. This one comes in around 15%, and at that abv half & half works well. Something like a white Russian, which is 30%, needs heavy cream because that’s too much booze and would curdle half & half. If you use milk, you would need to add less alcohol and water it down some to hopefully not have it curdle.

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Mulled Wine – Easy Classic Recipe

Mulled Wine Cocktail
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Mulled Wine

0 from 0 votes Only logged in users can rate recipes
Course: DrinksCuisine: American
Servings

1

servings
Calories

143

kcal
ABV

15%

Total time

0

minutes

Learn how to make an outstanding Mulled Wine.

Ingredients

  • 1 whole Cinnamon Stick

  • 4 whole All Spice Berries

  • 3 whole Cloves

  • 6 whole Orange Peels

  • 6 oz Honey

  • 12 oz Brandy

  • 1 Bottle Red Wine

Directions

  • Technique: Infusion
  • Add spices into a container with the fortifying spirit. Let the spices infuse into the brandy for 24 to 48 hours.
  • Before serving, gently heat the wine in a stovetop pot. Add sweetener and stir to dissolve. Do not boil.
  • Once the wine has warmed up, turn off the heat and add the spice-infused spirit mixture while straining out the spices. Discard the spices and serve.

Notes

Featured Video

This may be the oldest drink in this app because it dates back to the Romans. They had a spiced wine they called Hippocras. Unfortunately, there are no actual recipes for it. At least that I could find. It was not till the 1300s that the English and French started to specify the spices to use, and it’s basically what we still use today. This is NOT a hippocras recipe; this is a more modern, more palatable spiced wine you would expect to find in a standard cocktail app.

Now the drink. Pick a medium dry wine. If it’s already sweet, you can’t add your sweeteners like maple syrup or honey. This limits your ability to add complexity. These give you room to build more of your flavors. Next up is spices. Long story short, just read my mulling spices description. It can be summed up as not adding too much and sticking to just four different spices. Think cooking; you wouldn’t add a shit ton of salt or pepper to your fried eggs. It would be too much, so you do a light sprinkle. The same thing with this: add 2 or 3 cloves, three cinnamon sticks, etc. A little bit goes a very long way.

Next up is cooking. Most folks do this in a crockpot, so I would just set it to warm. High, low, and simmer are all too hot. Alcohol burns off at 173 f (78 c), and high, low, and simmer all go to around 180 – 200 f. High gets there faster than low and simmer, but warm only goes to 160 f. You can do a slow cooker if you want, but keep in mind that you will burn off most of the booze even at a warm temperature if you cook it for a long time. I think it boils better if you do it faster in a regular stovetop pot. Turn on the fire, pour it into the pot and quickly bring it to heat. If you have a thermometer, stop around 160 or till you start to see a light vapor coming off the top. Once your hooch is up to temp, drop it to low, add your sweetener and spices, and then cook for just 20 minutes. Most of the good flavors in your spices will come out in those first few minutes. Turn off the heat, fish out the spices, add your bourbon, and serve. And that’s it. Serve it, put a lid on it, put it in a thermos, reheat it when you want more a little later, but stop the long-term higher temperature cooking. Some folks cook this stuff for hours, but I think that’s a little excessive. You won’t get any more good flavor out of it, and you will burn off the booze.

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Philadelphia Fish House Punch – Original Colonial Recipe

Philadelphia Fish House Punch
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Quick Step-by-Step Philadelphia Fish House Punch Recipe Video

Philadelphia Fish House Punch

0 from 0 votes Only logged in users can rate recipes
Course: DrinksCuisine: American
Servings

1

servings
Calories

192

kcal
ABV

19%

Total time

3

minutes

Learn how to make a single serving of the iconic Philadelphia Fish House Punch.

Ingredients

  • 4 oz Water

  • 1/2 oz Lemon Juice

  • 1 oz Simple Syrup

  • 1/2 oz Peach Brandy

  • 1/2 oz Gold Rum

  • 1/2 oz Brandy

Directions

  • Technique: Simple Combine
  • Simply combine the ingredients together.philadelphia fish house punch
  • This works best if the ingredients are pre-chilled.philadelphia fish house punch

Recipe Video

Notes

The Angling Club That Helped Found America.

The iconic Philadelphia Fish house punch is believed to have come from the oldest angling club in the United States named the “Colony in Schuylkill.” Initially located in Fairmount, Pennsylvania, the club opened a clubhouse at the foot of the Schuylkill River Falls (The Club eventually changed its name to the Schuylkill Fishing Company and has moved several times since its founding and is now located in Andalusia, Pennsylvania). Playing a pivotal role in the revolutionary war, the governing members of the Colony of Schuylkill helped form the First Troop Philadelphia City Cavalry. The First Troop Philadelphia City Cavalry is still the oldest active and most decorated unit in the US Army today. George Washington & the Marquis de Lafayette often stopped at the clubhouse during the war, where they became honorary members. The Club would hold gatherings for military victories and, to celebrate, would mix up a special punch it served from their baptism bowl. These celebrations are the birthplace of the Philadelphia Fish House Punch.

The famed fish house punch did not stay in the clubhouse long and quickly became a well-known American punch. The oldest printed recipe for this cocktail is in the 1862 Bartender’s Guide by Jerry Thomas.

  • 1/3 Pint of lemon juice
  • 3/4 pound of white sugar
  • 1/3 pint of peach brandy
  • 1/3 pint of cognac brandy
  • 1/3 pint of Jamaican rum
  • 2 1/2 pints of cold water

Here is the punch recipe updated to use more convenient units. The single-serve recipe is below.

  • 3/4 cup of lemon juice
  • 1 1/2 cups (1/2 bottle) of simple syrup
  • 3/4 cup of peach brandy
  • 3/4 cup of cognac brandy
  • 3/4 cup of Jamaican rum
  • 6 1/3 cups (2 bottles) of cold water

A pint is the equivalent volume of a pound of water, so it’s good enough to use pound and pint interchangeably. Even the Mount Vernon historical estate recognizes this as the correct recipe, and I’m confident they know what they are talking about. But not all recipes use water. Some use black tea. The black tea recipes taste great and add a nice earthiness to it, but water is the original ingredient.

Peach Liqueur Is Not Peach Brandy.

Another ingredient that can cause an issue is peach brandy. Brandy is a catch-all name for any spirit distilled from fruit. However, the word brandy is synonymous with specifically grape brandy distilled from grape wine; any fruit wine can be distilled into brandy. To differentiate the other fruits, it specified which fruit, so apple brandy is from apple wine or pear brandy from pear wine, peach from peach wine, etc. And these other fruit brandies are typically dry, 80-proof, un-aged spirits.

The problem is peach liqueurs, and peach schnapps will be marketed and sold as peach brandy when they are entirely different from real peach brandy. Again real peach brandy is dry and strong, almost like a peachy white rum. Real peach brandy is nearly impossible to find, making the issue worse in stores. I’ve only ever seen dry peach brandy as small craft distilleries in house stores. Christian Bros Peach Brandy is the closest I’ve found in most liquor stores. It’s pretty good. It’s brandy infused with peach flavors, but it’s pretty dry, 35% ABV, and the closest you will get taste-wise to an absolute peach brandy. That being said I really like this made with peach schnapps.

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