Kentucky Housewife, Mrs. Lettice Bryan (1839)

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Kentucky Housewife, Mrs. Lettice Bryan (1839)

Unread postby delaware_phoenix » Sat Apr 10, 2010 8:26 am

I figured that since this is about Kentucky, perhaps this would be the best place for this. If the admins think it belongs elsewhere, perhaps in the Library, feel free to move it there!

Google books has available

The Kentucky Housewife: Containing Nearly Thirteen Hundred Full Receipts By Lettice Bryan (1839)

A reprint has been issued by Applewood Press in 2001, and that's the copy Amazon sells for a reasonable price.

From page 405 comes a recipe for Milk Punch. While calling for brandy or rum, it could be that one of these terms was used for whiskey, or that whiskey/bourbon was used when the others were not available. It could also be that more refined ladies, such as the readers of this book, would be assumed to use a more expensive (and imported) spirit than one of local origin, such as the common folks drink. And there was a reference to the mixing of milk with whiskey by ladies for their guests, and perhaps this is the kind of drink described.

MILK PUNCH.

Take rum, or any nice kind of brandy, and dilute it to the strength you like it, with entire sweet milk, stirring it in gradually. Sweeten it to your taste with loaf sugar, flavor it with a little capillary, and serve it up in glasses; drop a small lump of ice in each, and grate nutmeg thickly over them.

The description for making capillary precedes and is given as:

CAPILLAIRE.

Dissolve some loaf sugar in cold water, allowing half a pint of water to each pound of sugar. Mix in the whole
of an egg to every four pounds of sugar, and boil it to a thick syrup, removing every particle of scum as it rises. Pass it through a piece of muslin, and when quite cold, flavor it highly with orange flour water. Cork it up in bottles. It is principally used to flavor punch, &c.

Capillaire, Another Way.--Dissolve eight pounds of loaf sugar in one gallon of water, add the whites of two eggs, boil and skim it, and when nearly cold, stir in a pint of rose water.

Based on the various recipes, the folks did enjoy their nutmeg!
Cheryl Lins - Proprietor and distiller, Delaware Phoenix Distillery, Walton, NY
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