Lemonade

Tart, sweet lemonade with a little bit of orange to balance the lemon

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City/Region: France

Time Period: 1651

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Sweet lemon drinks go all the way back to Egypt around the year 1000, and since then, they’ve been used as medicine, became popular during Prohibition, and were made fizzy with egg whites or carbonation. Modern lemonade likely got its start in France in the 17th century and was so popular that the discarded lemon peels that littered the streets of Paris may have helped stave off an outbreak of plague.

I was a little skeptical of the inclusion of oranges in this recipe, but it turned out really good. There’s a hint of orange flavor, but the taste is definitely lemonade. As written, this is more of a tart lemonade (still sweet, but has a definite tart note), and the sweetness from the oranges helps balance out the sourness of the lemons. I liked it a lot, and even if you don’t try out this exact recipe, try adding a bit of orange the next time you make lemonade.

“Take one pint of water, add to it a half pound of sugar, the juice of six lemons and two oranges, the zest of one half lemon and half an orange you have pressed: mix the water well in two very clean vessels, pouring it back and forth from one to the other several times, and strain through a white napkin.”

— Le Cuisinier François by La Varenne, 1651

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Ingredients:

• 1 quart (1 L) water
• 1 cup (200 g) sugar
• 6 lemons, the smallest you can find
• 2 oranges, the smallest you can find

Instructions:

1. Zest half a lemon and half an orange. The recipe says to do this after you’ve squeezed the juice out, but that’s a real pain. It’s much easier to zest them before you squeeze, and no one’s going to judge you for doing so.
2. Cut all the fruit in half.
3. In a pitcher, add the sugar to the water. Stir until the sugar dissolves.
4. Juice the citrus and add it to the pitcher. Add the zest and give it a stir.
5. Grab another pitcher and pour the lemonade back and forth several times between the two to mix it.
6. Strain the mixture through a white napkin or a coffee filter. This might take a while.
7. Serve it forth over ice.

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