Food - Drink
The Odd Lemonade Recipe From The First-Known Cocktail Book
By RYAN CASHMAN
To most people, basic lemonade is nothing but water, lemon juice, and sugar. However, the lemonade recipe in the very first cocktail book in history is rather far-off.
"Oxford Night Caps", published in 1827, shockingly lists lemonade as a variation on Egg Punch. The inclusion of fresh eggs in the book's recipe isn't even the weirdest part.
The lemonade also calls for liquified calves-foot jelly. The people of Victorian England made gelatin by boiling split calves' feet, and the recipe calls for a whole four glasses.
Besides the raw eggs and calf jelly, Oxford Night Caps' lemonade calls for the juice of eight lemons, pulverized sugar, and water, all mixed into a froth before serving.
The lemonade was likely a thicker concoction with a somewhat savory undertone, which may sound gross, but the recipe was popular enough to stay in the book for multiple printings.