“Arianne drew the child away. ‘You must be hungry. We have dates and cheese and olives, and lemonsweet to drink. You ought not eat or drink too much, though…” -A Feast for Crows
17th C. and Modern Lemonsweet
Thoughts:
These recipes produce two very different lemonades. The older recipe results in an intense, kick in the face sort of lemonade, with all the vibrancy of fresh lemons, and a sweet tang that goes on and on.
The modern recipe, ironically, makes a lemonade that tastes very old worldy. Using honey instead of sugar reduces the immediate sweetness prevalent in many modern lemonades, while the unexpected taste of the vanilla will make you stop and work the flavors over again in your mouth.
Both are excellent and refreshing on hot summer days. In the future, we might try infusing the modern version with just a sprig of fresh thyme or rosemary, while the older recipe could do with a bit of (non-traditional) carbonation.
Recipes available in the Cookbook.
Welcome back! Hope your week was fun and everything you wanted. The modern recipe has no sugar in the ingredient list to disolve with the honey and water. Am I missing something…it IS early in the morning for me :). That said, both recipes sound wonderful; the unexpected tinge of orange in the 17th century recipe, and the very intriguing vanilla in the modern version. Must go get lemons…
Nope! I tweaked the wording to clarify the matter, but there’s no sugar in the modern recipe. Hope you enjoy it! :)
Not to be picky, but in the modern lemonade recipe you have vanilla extract listed in the ingredients, but use a vanilla bean in the actual instructions. I assume you meant to change one or the other?
Since vanilla extract is usually 40% alcohol, I’d prefer the bean method anyway.
So would we! Sometimes a whole vanilla bean is not an option, though, so we wanted to keep extract as an alternative. Hope you like it!
One half a teaspooon of 40% alcohol substance, in an entire pitcher of lemonade, is 100% COMPLETELY NEGLIGIBLE. Perfect for literally anyone to drink.
Its 40% of 1/2 tsp in approximately 3 1/2 cups, which is a small pitcher. Or, using one unit 40% of 1/84 a cup in 295/84 of a cup, which comes to .4 parts in 295, or 1 part in 738. Which, while well under the amount to get drunk or similar, is more than enough for certain religions to frown on it, and probably more than enough for this not to be a good idea to give to recovering alcoholics.
This looks perfect for hot days like today!
Made the 17th C lemonade tonight, with bubbly water instead of normal, and WOW! Fabulous! The oranges add a great flavor. The family all had a cup and, just like that, it was gone! Thank you!
Tried the modern version today and something about the honey and lemon came out cough-dropy.
It’s so funny you should say that! I’ve been taking the modern version as a sort of summer Hot Toddy to help with a cold. I found it very comforting. That said, if your mixture wasn’t to your taste, you might prefer the older recipe, or try decreasing the amount of honey that goes into the modern one.
Or just, you know, use sugar instead?
BVM,
Hey, IAC, I just finished the mediaval recipe and it turned out AMAZING and better than I imagined it to be but my mum said that it was too strong and that it should be drunk by adding water to say, a cup of it and not alone. I taste dit this way and it turned out very bland. What do you say to that? Thanks.