Popular culture depictions of the “roaring twenties” often focus on speakeasies and illicit cocktail consumption. However, as prohibition (1920-1933) pushed alcoholic beverages into shadowy corners, soft drinks took center stage in cookbooks for home cooks and party hostesses. This month’s recipe comes from Add-a-Leaf Hostess Book (1926) by Betty Beldon, in collaboration with Ida Bailey Allen.
Add-a-Leaf Hostess Book by Betty Beldon et al, published by Canada Dry Ginger Ale, Inc., 1926. University of Michigan Library, Special Collections Research Center (Janice Bluestein Longone Culinary Archive)
Published by Canada Dry Ginger Ale, Inc. this loose leaf binder includes dozens of recipes promoting Canada Dry Ginger Ale as an ingredient throughout the meal, from appetizers to desserts. In addition to printed recipes, the binder includes blank pages for home cooks to paste their own recipes, facilitating the common 19th & early 20th century practice of combining handwritten recipe books with scrapbook-style collections of recipes clipped from magazines and newspapers. A former owner of our copy added recipes in the Desserts section for coffee marshmallow fluff, English plum pudding, and mousse.
Add-a-Leaf Hostess Book by Betty Beldon, et al., published by Dry Ginger Ale, Inc., 1926. University of Michigan Library, Special Collections Research Center (Janice Bluestein Longone Culinary Archive)
The Beverages chapter of Add-a-Leaf Hostess Book features a bevy of drinks made from fruit juice and ginger ale that might have included alcohol a few years earlier: Canadian Grenadier, Canada Dry Shandygaff, Night Cap, and Canada Dry Mint Julep.
Add-a-Leaf Hostess Book by Betty Beldon, et al, published by Canada Dry Ginger Ale, Inc., 1926. University of Michigan Library, Special Collections Research Center (Janice Bluestein Longone Culinary Archive)
Canada Dry Mint Julep
(individual Service)
Pluck leaves from a few sprigs of mint. Crush a few mint leaves with thin strips of peel from half a medium-sized lemon. Add the juices of half a lemon and one lime. Stir in one scant tablespoon of powdered sugar and place on ice an hour. To serve, strain, pour in a tall glass and fill with sparkling cold Canada Dry. Garnish with a creme de menthe cherry, and a sprig of fresh mint.
Contrast this version with the recipe for mint julep that appears in Mrs. Norton's cook-book…(1917) by Jeanette Young Norton:
Mint Julep
Melt one cup of sugar in one cup of boiling water; let cool; bruise three or four sprigs of mint and throw into the mixture; as it cools half fill punch glasses with shaved ice, add one tablespoon of the syrup to each glass, put three or four sprigs of mint in the glass, first dipping it in cold water and dusting it with powdered sugar; fill the glass with Mount Vernon whiskey.
In the prohibition-era recipe, cold ginger ale replaces both the sugar syrup (sugar & water) and whiskey, while lemon and lime juice add piquancy. The garnish of a creme de menthe cherry seems unusual today, but these mint-infused cherries were once common embellishments for both alcoholic drinks, like this 1914 Erminie cocktail, and soda fountain treats like this 1905 royal baby.
I wasn’t able to find creme de menthe cherries in my local grocery store (a specialty cocktail supplier might be able to provide), so I soaked red maraschino cherries in creme de menthe overnight. While the red coloring still stands out, the overnight soak did fully imbue a very minty flavor in the cherries, resulting in a refreshing treat on a hot August day!
Canada Dry Mint Julep (1926)