Butterbeer doesn’t appear until Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, but it’s still one of the most memorable culinary features of the wizarding world.
Described as slightly alcoholic and served hot or cold, it’s sweet and refreshing.
The recipe below serves four and is kid-friendly - try adding rum, butterscotch schnapps, or vanilla vodka for a grownups-only kick.
Butterbeer
1 cup light or dark brown sugar
2 tablespoons water
6 tablespoons butter
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 tsp cider vinegar
3/4 cup heavy cream, divided
1/2 tsp rum extract
Four 12-ounce bottles cream soda
In a small saucepan over medium, combine the brown sugar and water. Bring to a gentle boil and cook, stirring often, until the mixture reads 240 F on a candy thermometer.
Stir in the butter, salt, vinegar and 1/4 heavy cream. Set aside to cool to room temperature. Once the mixture has cooled, stir in the rum extract.
In a medium bowl, combine 2 tablespoons of the brown sugar mixture and the remaining 1/2 cup of heavy cream. Use an electric mixer to beat until just thickened, but not completely whipped, about 2 to 3 minutes.
To serve, divide the brown sugar mixture between 4 tall glasses (about 1/4 cup for each glass). Add 1/4 cup of cream soda to each glass, then stir to combine. Fill each glass nearly to the top with additional cream soda, then spoon the whipped topping over each.
Click hereto get the full article with your library card.
Recommended by Lydia
NAVY GROG | Master and Commander series by Patrick O’Brian
Anyone who has read any historical fiction, from the classic children’s book The Borrowers to Jack London’s Stories of the Sea, has encountered grog.
The potent drink was an essential part of a British sailor’s “salary”, a reward for work well done, and it’s withdrawal a harsh punishment. Salts, tars, limeys, seadogs, captains and bosuns, they all drank it.
Grog also helped keep sailors alive, because a key ingredient was citrus - to prevent scurvy on long voyages. It was served hot on frosty evenings, or cold if there was ice to be had ashore.
The classic ingredients are rum, water, lime juice, and honey, but here’s a lovely chilled version from The Spruce Eats.
Navy Grog
1 ounce white rum
1 ounce demerara rum
1 ounce dark rum
3/4 ounce lime juice
3/4 ounce white grapefruit juice
1 ounce honey syrup
2 ounces club soda (or enough to fill)
Garnish: 1 orange slice
Garnish: 1 cherry
Recommended by Roberta
RASPBERRY CORDIAL | Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery
Anne of Green Gables is a coming of age tale following Anne, an adopted orphan growing up in the countryside of Green Gables.
In chapter 16, Anne has her friend Diana over for tea. During the tea, Anne mistakes a bottle of currant wine for raspberry cordial, which leads to Diana becoming drunk.
“Diana poured herself out a tumblerful, looked at its bright-red hue admiringly, and then sipped it daintily.
That's awfully nice raspberry cordial, Anne," she said. "I didn't know raspberry cordial was so nice."
When Anne came back from the kitchen Diana was drinking her second glassful of cordial; and, being entreated thereto by Anne, she offered no particular objection to the drinking of a third. The tumblerfuls were generous ones and the raspberry cordial was certainly very nice.
"The nicest I ever drank," said Diana. "It's ever so much nicer than Mrs. Lynde's, although she brags of hers so much. It doesn't taste a bit like hers."
Raspberry Cordial
500g fresh raspberries
1/3 cup lemon juice (around 3 lemons)
12 cups boiling water
3 cups white sugar
approximately 400ml cool water
Instructions
Wash raspberries and place them in a large bowl
Squeeze lemons, then pour the juice through a strainer onto the raspberries. Mix gently.
Boil 12 cups of water in a large pot
Stir sugar into boiling water until it dissolves
Pour liquid onto raspberries
Cover mixture and let steep in refrigerator for 24 hours
Take mixture from fridge and pass it through a sieve to remove the seeds
Use a potato masher to press the raspberries and extract as much of the juice as possible
Add approximately 400ml of cool water to the raspberry mush to help extract natural flavours and colours
Strain mixture until all pulp and seeds are removed
"Hercule Poirot sat at breakfast in his small but agreeably cosy flat in Whitehall Mansions. He had enjoyed his brioche and his cup of hot chocolate. Unusually, for he was a creature of habit and rarely varied his breakfast routine, he asked his valet, George, to make him a second cup of hot chocolate."
What better drink to pair with a mystery and an armchair than the sweet-toothed Hercule Poirot's poison of choice, hot cocoa.
Although Agatha Christie's gentleman detective eschewed alcohol, this treat has a grown-up version if you add a splash of Kahlua or Rumplemintz, depending on your mood.
What I love about this beverage is its inviting warmth and versatility. With or without alcohol, it could be appropriate morning, afternoon, or at bedtime and in any season. For chocolate lovers, it draws out the chocolaty experience over a whole mug (or two) which is perfect over a chapter of a book!
I worked off a recipe from Katie Barrett's Literary Lunch blog to make this one.
I added Rumplemintz and sweet foam since I didn't have whipped cream in the house. I used chocolate chips instead of a bar of dark chocolate, adding some to the top as well (they sank down through the foam). If I went the Kahlua route, I might add a dash of nutmeg and extra vanilla.
You can really doll it up a lot of ways, and if you don't have fancy ingredients, the same effect is achieved by just stirring up a packet of cocoa mix, adjusting the amount of sugar, hot water, cream or any milk you have. Best enjoyed in your favorite chair, and in your favorite mug (this makes it taste better).
Recommended by Annie
WHITE ANGEL | Breakfast at Tiffany’s by Truman Capote
An American classic, Breakfast at Tiffany’s is a novella that is centered around the life of Holly Golightly through the account of an unnamed narrator.
Holly is a country woman who has become a high society woman in New York.
The narrator recounts his memories of her and the people in her life.
The book also contains three other stories “"House of Flowers," "A Diamond Guitar," and "A Christmas Memory”.
Breakfast at Tiffany’s is a 1940’s tale in New York City.
It wouldn’t be New York City without cocktails and in the story Capote describes White Angel as “Something new [. . .] one-half vodka, one-half gin, no vermouth.”
It is a simple drink:
The White Angel
2 ounces of Vodka
2 Ounces of Gin
Shake with ice and strain into a cocktail glass
Recommended by Alejandro
CALVADOS BRANDY | Arch of Triumph by Erich Maria Remarque
This is a tale of two lovers in Paris during World War II who drank Calvados at every important moment in their ill-fated romance and at other times as well.
They really drank quite a lot, actually, but there was a war going on and the Germans were occupying the city.
Here’s one scene where they try a special vintage in a restaurant:
“I’ve never tasted anything like that before,” she said and sipped a second time. “One doesn’t drink it-one just inhales it.”
Calvados is an apple brandy that has been described as “an apple orchard in a bottle” or “fall in a glass.”
And even though it’s technically spring, here in Chicagoland it still feels a little bit like fall. Here’s a recipe to try that will work for any season:
The Big Apple Martini
1 ounce Calvados
3 ounces apple schnapps
2 ounces vodka
1/2 ounce apple juice
Shake and strain
Fill a cocktail shaker two-thirds full of ice and add all of the ingredients. Shake for approximately 5 seconds. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass.
Pair with cheese, chocolate dessert or crepes!
Click here to get the full article with your library card.
Recommended by Christina
GIN COCKTAIL | The Jewel in the Crown by Paul Scott
The Jewel in the Crown, the first volume of The Raj Quartet, takes place during World War II in the last years of British rule in India.
The story centers on a love triangle and portrays the life style of the ruling raj, who leisurely sip gin and tonics, Pimms and soda or rum and lime on the veranda, among other things.
“One develops an instinct for people. I wander on about this because when I stood on the balcony, drinking my well-deserved gin and lime juice, I saw Ronald and Mr. Poulson come out of the house and get into Ronald’s truck. Judge Menen wasn’t with them. He stayed behind to have a drink with Lili.”
Here’s a recipe that evokes the sultry heat of summer, whether you’re in India or Chicago.
Gin Cocktail
3 lemons
3/4 cup sugar
1 750-milliliter bottle gin
1/2 cup orange liqueur
1 liter seltzer, chilled
Use a vegetable peeler to peel long strips of pith-free skin from the lemons. Place peels in a bowl, add sugar, muddle vigorously and allow to steep 2 to 3 hours. Juice lemons to obtain 3/4 cup. Pour lemon juice over peels and stir to dissolve sugar. Transfer to a 3-quart pitcher half-filled with ice.
Add gin, liqueur and seltzer. Stir and pour into punch cups or short-stemmed glasses, and serve.
Click here to get the full article with your library card:
Recommended by Christina
PAN GALACTIC GARBLE BLASTER | The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, a wacky spacefaring adventure, follows Englishman Arthur Dent on his reluctant journey across the universe.
The novel is named for a fictional guidebook which describes the best drink in existence: the Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster.
It notes, “The effect of drinking a Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster is like having your brains smashed out by a slice of lemon wrapped round a large gold brick.”
The Recipe:
Take the juice from one bottle of the Ol’ Janx Spirit
Pour it into one measure of water from the seas of Santraginus V
Allow three cubes of Arcturan Mega-gin to melt into the mixture (it must be properly iced or the benzine is lost)
Allow four liters of Fallian marsh gas to bubble through it
Over the back of a silver spoon float a measure of Qualactin Hypermint extract
