Found loads of old family recipes!

baby and crumble · 18-10-2011 11:09pm #1

Hi all!

I was given a load of old family documents from my dad a little while ago, and while I was digging through I found a really old battered cookbook of family recipes, which I'm really ecited to try out!

But the question I have for you guys is help deciphering some of the directions/ measurements in one recipe, which is a recipe for 'orange brandy'.

Here's the recipe: I've bolded the bits I'm not sure of

Take the rind of 9 Seville oranges and 9 lemons, pared very thin.

6 (here there is a symbol like a 'degree' sign, any idea what that might be?) worth of saffron.

Put all into a jar closely covered. Add 2 lbs of soft white sugar and a little sugar candy made fine (what is sugar candy?). One gallon of whiskey, let it stand a month.

Half a gallon of whiskey half rind of oranges and lemons saffron and sugar. Then a quart less of everything. Shake every day for a month: then bottle it.

The last bit there is written on the paper directly after the other bit, but with a line separating- do you guys reckon is this a new recipe, or another part of the same? I don't understand those instructions though; anyone have any ideas?

I just about have enough time to make this for Christmas if i can figure it out in the next few days, and I think it would be cool, an old family recipe for brandy cracking open on Christmas eve or something!!!

Thoie · 18-10-2011 11:16pm

If you have access to a scanner could you scan in the recipe? It might be easier for people to decipher.

If it's very old, could the degree sign be a small curly "d"? In which case it might be 6 (old) pence worth of saffron.

ilovenerds · 18-10-2011 11:29pm

baby and crumble wrote: »

Half a gallon of whiskey half rind of oranges and lemons saffron and sugar. Then a quart less of everything. Shake every day for a month: then bottle it.

The last bit there is written on the paper directly after the other bit, but with a line separating- do you guys reckon is this a new recipe, or another part of the same? I don't understand those instructions though; anyone have any ideas?

Sounds like the last bit is a revised version of the older recipe. They seem to be simply halving the recipe. I'm assuming "everything else" refers to the sugar and sugar candy. Best of luck with your beverage brewing:)

Thoie · 18-10-2011 11:39pm

Take a look here under "Gaelic script" for the little d I'm talking about:

http://www.omniglot.com/writing/irish.htm

baby and crumble · 19-10-2011 12:35am

Thoie wrote: »

Take a look here under "Gaelic script" for the little d I'm talking about:

http://www.omniglot.com/writing/irish.htm

That looks about right, Thoie. Here are a few pics I took (without flash so not great but I'm also trying to figure out how to preserve the documents and apparently scanners and flash photography degrade the ink and paper!). This was in a stash or letters and documents from the 1920's and 30's, so I'm guessing it's a pre-war recipe, which is rather exciting!

Here's the full recipe:

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Here's a closeup of the little symbol. I think it probably is the symbol for old pence... anyone was to hazard a guess as to how mch saffron that might be? I mean saffron is expensive now, I can only imagine what it was like pre WW2!

[IMG][/img]

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Is sugar candy something I can get anywhere? I'm at a loss as to what it is, i'm not getting much on google...

Thoie · 19-10-2011 1:17am

Yeah, that's 6 old pence worth of saffron. As saffron can be quite bitter, and expensive, if it was me I'd take a stab at "a small pinch" mostly for colouring, however I can appreciate that you don't want to get it wrong as it's for Christmas!

From http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/currency/results.asp#mid (bearing in mind that UK and Irish currency was worth about the same at one stage:
In 1930, £0 0s 6d would have the same spending worth of 2005's £0.84

So, it'd be fair to say that 6d is roughly €1 - but that doesn't tell us what the comparative price of saffron is - no idea whether saffron has become cheaper/more expensive in the intervening time.

Sugar candy is quite possibly toffee/caramel (http://www.wikihow.com/Make-Sugar-Candy) - I have memories of my granny dissolving sugar in water, letting it harden and giving us lumps of it to gnaw on (no, I don't know how we have any teeth left either). I'm not sure why you'd use that instead of just sugar though. I suppose the caramelised sugar would have a slightly different flavour, so that might be it.

I'm no historian, but I seem to recall that oranges and lemons were hard to come by during the war, which ties in with the 1920s/30s timeframe. One off scanning won't terribly affect the papers, but it's best to avoid as much as you can - the flash free photo worked fine

For storage, look for acid-free binder pockets (something like this, but not necessarily these ones: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Star-Punched-Polypropylene-Top-opening-frosted/dp/B000I6NQU2/ref=sr_1_1?s=officeproduct&ie=UTF8&qid=1318983151&sr=1-1). That will help prevent tearing/oils from your fingers as you handle the pages. Keep them somewhere light-tight when not in use.

Eviledna · 19-10-2011 1:22am

Aha! I know what sugar candy is...;)

Sugar candy

I reckon sugar candy "made fine" means ground up. It's like those glucose sticks you used to get in the pharmacy. It would add a caramel type flavour when dissolved. I agree with the folks above, they mean 6p worth of saffron, which would have been only a couple of pinches as saffron was, and still is expensive

If you do give this a go please do post it in the make your own Xmas presents thread!:D

baby and crumble · 19-10-2011 1:32pm

Cheers guys, you've been really helpful!

Now to go and source everything so I can have a bash tonight. At least it's only 1 month brewing so I have 2 possible stabs at it before Christmas actually arrives!

Didn't realise there was a make your own presents thread, I'm hoping to do a lot of baking/ jams and chutneys for Christmas this year...

*goes off to investigate*

baby and crumble · 19-10-2011 2:23pm

Just looked up how much is in a gallon these days. ERK! I can't afford 4 1/2 litres of whiskey, so some jiggery pokery with the ingredient amounts is deffo needed!!!

Eviledna · 19-10-2011 3:00pm

Don't forget Aldi and Lidl to be your friends in the quest for low priced whiskey! (Probably not the optimum taste-wise though, here's hoping the orange-yness cancelles it out

)

Dizzyblonde · 19-10-2011 3:31pm

I'm old enough to remember the old 6d coin, and it was somewhere between the size of today's 2c and 5c coins. So if you use a 2c coin and lift enough saffron on it so it's slightly heaped, that should do the trick

Darkginger · 19-10-2011 6:44pm

Thank you so much for posting this

I don't think I can stretch to a gallon of whiskey (more's the pity), but I reckon this is easily scalable down to a bottle's worth - maybe the zest of a lemon and an orange, a pinch of saffron, a couple of tablespoons of sugar, and forget the sugar candy? Sounds pretty deadly anyway, and I'm going to give it a go!

baby and crumble · 19-10-2011 8:25pm

Well i just bottled my first batch of this, and here's how I figured it:

700ml Bushmills (Had a full bottle I got as a pressie and I'm not a fan of Irish whiskey)
rind of 2 lemons & 2 oranges
180g of caster sugar
pinch of safron
2 small lumps of sugar candy (found randomly in the Asia Market on Drury St! It's in a little green bag for like €1.50)

All into a 1.5 litre bottle, shook up til things are dissolved and here we go! Shake it every day. Fingers crossed!

The Sparrow · 19-10-2011 8:35pm

baby and crumble wrote: »

Well i just bottled my first batch of this, and here's how I figured it:

700ml Bushmills (Had a full bottle I got as a pressie and I'm not a fan of Irish whiskey)
rind of 2 lemons & 2 oranges
180g of caster sugar
pinch of safron
2 small lumps of sugar candy (found randomly in the Asia Market on Drury St! It's in a little green bag for like €1.50)

All into a 1.5 litre bottle, shook up til things are dissolved and here we go! Shake it every day. Fingers crossed!

Let us know how you get on.

Thoie · 20-10-2011 8:49am

baby and crumble wrote: »

Well i just bottled my first batch of this, and here's how I figured it:

700ml Bushmills (Had a full bottle I got as a pressie and I'm not a fan of Irish whiskey)
rind of 2 lemons & 2 oranges
180g of caster sugar
pinch of safron
2 small lumps of sugar candy (found randomly in the Asia Market on Drury St! It's in a little green bag for like €1.50)

All into a 1.5 litre bottle, shook up til things are dissolved and here we go! Shake it every day. Fingers crossed!

Any pics as you go along? Though I suspect they may be "here's a bottle", "here's the same bottle a few days later..."

baby and crumble · 20-10-2011 7:20pm

Yeah, I doubt they'll be changing too much, but I'll keep you guys posted as to smell and consistency, I reckon that'll be the two main tellers of how it's brewing...

My family are quite excited about this for christmas!

baby and crumble · 27-11-2011 12:48am

Heys guys, just wanted to update you as to the progress...

I opened it up last night, strained it, and had a taste with my Dad. I completely forgot to take pics, but once strained, the brandy looked almost exactly like orange jelly before it sets!!! Quite a change in colour from a bottle of Bushmills!

It was very nice. More of a liquer maybe than a brandy as such... Quite a kick to the end of it. Very nice to sip though.

I think i'm going to refine the recipe slightly and make a new batch tomorrow... another lemon rind I think, and perhaps less saffron... I was pretty generous with my 'pinch' last time.

All in all, a success! So thanks to everyone who posted and helped me out!

Next stop: more of this, and some gin infusions for Christmas!!!

Thoie · 27-11-2011 12:47pm

baby and crumble wrote: »

Heys guys, just wanted to update you as to the progress...

I opened it up last night, strained it, and had a taste with my Dad. I completely forgot to take pics, but once strained, the brandy looked almost exactly like orange jelly before it sets!!! Quite a change in colour from a bottle of Bushmills!

It was very nice. More of a liquer maybe than a brandy as such... Quite a kick to the end of it. Very nice to sip though.

I think i'm going to refine the recipe slightly and make a new batch tomorrow... another lemon rind I think, and perhaps less saffron... I was pretty generous with my 'pinch' last time.

All in all, a success! So thanks to everyone who posted and helped me out!

Next stop: more of this, and some gin infusions for Christmas!!!

So, when are you inviting us all around for the official tasting

Where did you get the saffron in the end?

baby and crumble · 27-11-2011 3:55pm

Hah, have to brew the next batch first!

I picked up saffron in Fallon & Byrne, actually, but I have seen it in Marks & Spencer since.

Found loads of old family recipes!

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