Just in time for the holidays, another “find”, this time what appears to have been the beginning of a recipe book of mixed drinks. My mother, Helen Yonge Lind, chose a nice notebook, collected a few recipes, and then the project was set aside and apparently forgotten. I’m guessing this dates from somewhere shortly after my parents were married at the end of 1939. Perhaps it was the war that intervened? Who knows.
But you never know when a traditional recipe for “Scorpions for 20” might come in handy!
We’re in the final stages of clearing out my parents’ old house in Kahala. Things are almost all sorted into piles. Give away. Throw away. Bulky item pickup. Put into storage somewhere (mostly old genealogy notes my sister will eventually sort through). Possible garage sale. Disperse among the family.
Even among the mess, the handmade cover caught my eye.
I carefully turned to the first page.
Manhattans for 4.
Manhattan special for 2.
Scorpions for 20 people.
I was hooked.
You can click on the page below to read the recipes in my mom’s handwriting. But here’s the basic scorpion recipe that she recorded.
It starts with a gallon of oke or whiskey. That tells you something right there–Okolehao was apparently much more readily available than today. Then gather a dozen juice oranges and 1-1/2 dozen lemons. Thinly slice half the fruit. Squeeze juice from the rest.
Then combine everything, add one or two cups of sugar and a couple of bunches of mint (chopped), and let stand “at least 48 hours.”
When ready to serve, strain out the fruit, then combine in a large bowl equal parts of the fruit mix, sparkling water, and ginger ale.
Add twenty people and you’ve got a party!
There’s also a recipe for a Christmas wine punch, and a couple of clippings suggesting alternatives to martinis.
Discover more from i L i n d
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Love the Manhattan recipe. If my liquid measures converter is working, a cup of rye and a half cup each of sweet and dry vermouth means each person gets about 4 ounces of booze per drink. Sounds about right.
Man there must have been some great parties at your parent’s house back in the day.
What a gift your mom left you, one that lives on.
Mine kept a personal diary containing her thoughts about travel and family and the world for more than 30 years after she wrote a retrospective of the first 40 or years of her life.
My brother inherited the many volume collection and typed it out for all us survivors. I treasure the collection, even when she disapproved of something I had done or said decades before.
I feel I know her better now that when she died.
(Unfortunately, no gin cocktail recipes)
A gift indeed, but for us also and it’s so much fun to see the discoveries.
Another arm of my family started sharing photos from the Connecticut shoreline from around 1910 and forward to the 20’s…what a GREAT gift to see relatives I’d only heard of…and the clothes…now THERE were some bathing suits…lol.
Thanks for sharing again!
Here’s an idea: whip up a batch of that “Scorpion” and serve it at the garage sale! The stuff will sell in no time and you’ll turn a handsome profit, too!