Ah, hello! As it's almost summer and it promises to be hot, today I'm making one of my favourite
summer drinks, Ginger Beer. For this recipe, you will need...
Water
Sugar
Lemon zest
Ginger
Yeast
and bread.
I'm preparing my lemon zest very carefully. I'm just cutting off the peel as I don't want
any of the pith, the white, as that can be very bitter. Ginger beer is very popular in
the summer with both the family and the servants. Ginger when it's dried is quite cheap but
even fresh it's not too expensive. I get mine from the grocer in Walden. I prefer the Indian
ginger. I think it's finer.
You can of course buy ginger beer very easily but I like to make my own. Now that I've peeled
it I'm going to chop it and bruise it a little. I like ginger beer recipes. I collect them.
I already have three in my recipe book. This one is from the Field newspaper. Lord and
Lady Braybrooke take it and so I've copied it down.
The preparation is nice and simple. I'm going to melt some sugar in boiling water.
Our hot water comes from a cistern on the roof. The rain water is then brought down
to a boiler behind the range. When it's lit, which it nearly always is, we have lots of
hot water. Now I'm going to add the lemon and ginger.
For drinking water we have standing pipes that provide nice fresh water, although when
we're in London at the town house I'm a little more careful. There are some parts of London
where the water is not nice! Although the kettle is always on for a cup of tea.
There. I need to leave this now until it's just slightly warm.
Next I'm going to add the yeast. They used to brew beer here at Audley End House, but
that stopped quite a few years ago. Now we have to buy the yeast in from local breweries
or we can buy the German yeast that comes in compressed blocks. You can buy yeast in
a powder! However you use it, you must make a paste.
I'm now going to take this piece of toast that's still warm from the fire and spread
it with the yeast.
This will add more flavour and help the yeast work.
I'm going to cover it and put it by the fire for about two days.
Now that my ginger beer has fermented, I'm going to strain it before I put it in bottles.
It's important to strain it through a butter muslin or a very fine cloth otherwise it might
still continue to ferment in the bottles, and then it could blow their tops off!
Some ginger beers get better with age but this one is best drunk straight away so I'm
now going to bottle it. I've got quite a few here. You are supposed to send them back but
not everyone does.
This one comes from London, someone must have brought it up from Upper Brook Street. This
one from Chelmsford just up the road. This one from Norwich near where I used to work.
Caley's. They're an old firm. And this one, it's Schweppes. They're everywhere.
This isn't very strong at the moment. But it will get stronger the longer you keep it,
as Mr Lincoln found out when he found a bottle at the back of the cupboard that must have
been over a year old and then later his footman asleep under a tree.
A nice refreshing summer drink. Ginger beer.