Favorite Recipes for Lemonade, Etc.
November 7, 2024 in Manuscript Studies, RGME Recipes
Favorite Recipes for Lemonade
and Other Treats
First Gatherings
for an RGME Book of Favorite Recipes
Prizes Included
[Posted on 7 November 2024 with two entries; updates on 18 November with two more; update on 30 November with one more]
The First Recipe Competition for the Friends of the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence was announced in Summer 2024 with its own blogpost and at various RGME online events. See:
Conversations since then about the competition and favorite recipes have expanded the scope of the competition, just as they have gathered prizes through donations to award the winning entries. Besides entries of recipes, which might be as easy or complicated as you like, we welcome your stories about the recipes, their creators, and the occasions and intentions which they represent. What makes them favorites? We would love to know.
Paris, Musée d’Orsay, Edouard Manet, “Le Citron” (1832). Image Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons.
Lemons and More
Initially, the competition focused upon lemonade, so as to acknowledge and respond to the maxim that “Life Gives You Lemons”, by coming up with a resourceful recipe, resulting in, say, Lemonade. However, it has been easily agreed that a winning recipe might not have mainly to have lemons, or might even not have lemons at all. Some other citrus fruit(s), for example, might stand in for Lemonade. Also, a favorite recipe might not have to produce a drink, as with one suggestion offering a favorite recipe for a lemon cake. Rumor has it that a proposed entry for a family-favorite recipe might feature green beans.
We admire the variety and ingenuity.
What we welcome are recipes that are your favorites. Plus stories. We love stories about recipes. For the competition, we started with the idea of gathering recipes for lemonade, as a starting place for more competitions about other sorts of dishes and ingredients. The responses already show that the quest includes others as well as those which showcase lemons.
Four-Step Competiton
Thus we slightly rephrase the Three Steps of the Competition (see Three-Step Program, Lemonade Included), and also add a Step Four.
Step 1. “Life Gives You Lemons” (or something which can taste like Lemons)
Step 2. “Make Lemonade” (or something which can taste good or anyway better)
Step 3. Enter your Favorite Recipe for the RGME ‘Lemonade’ Competition. Ideally with a Story.
Step 4. Win a Prize.
Prizes
Responding to the enjoyment and enthusiasm for the spirit of the competition, more prizes have been donated, so that there might be more to go around. Naturally, the prizes have a lemon or lemon-patterned theme.
They include, for example,
- bib-style kitchen apron with lemon-patterned fabric and lemon-shaped pockets
- set of 12 linen lemon-patterned cocktail napkins
- set of 8 lemon-patterned paper dinner plates
- large lemon-patterned pot-holder
- yellow lemon press
- lemon–basil travel candle in metal tin
- mini pop-up paper plant in the form of a lemon-blossom tree, plus matching card
The prizes will be wrapped in lemon-patterned gift-wrapping paper, of course.
Entries so Far
Entry 1
The first entry by one RGME Associate, our Research Consultant, was brief and to the point.
“Give or Take” — with a dash of Throw-Back
1. Life gives you Lemons
2. Give them Back
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Entry 2
Another entry emphasizes the element of hospitality, friendship, and conviviality. It features lemonade, added to, or mixed with, those ingredients.
The ‘creation’ and testing of this recipe occurred when all the ingredients could be assembled, on a visit arranged by one Associate with our Director on 1 November 2024 in New York City.
“Mint Lemonade by the Park” — perfect for a Reunion Luncheon
- Arrange a time and place to meet for a reunion of two friends, such as at a favorite restaurant (in this case, Le Pain Cotidien in New York City, Bryant Park)
- Turn up
- Order the specialty Mint Lemonade, long a favorite, plus other nourishment (in this case, salads and then dessert of berry tarts)
- Season to taste with conversation and friendship
- Enjoy
- Send in your recipe
- Bonus points for bookish interests: the chosen restaurant was located on the opposite side of Bryant Park to the New York Public Library
Perhaps needless to say, the impromptu recipe was written down on a paper napkin.
Mint Lemonade in New York City at a Friends’ Reunion. Photography by Mildred Budny.
Mint Lemonade plus Berry Tarts, in New York City at a Friends’ Reunion. Photography by Mildred Budny.
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Entry 3
This entry comes from our multi-faceted First WebMaster Emeritus, Jesse D. Hurlbut. His dedication to manuscript studies and the enjoyment of their images is manifest and generously shared on his own website, Manuscript Art: Taking a Closer Look.
He sets the stage for his entry for our competition thus:
Here is a lemon-based recipe that I haven’t made since my single days as an undergraduate. My roommates and I called this treat “Rocket Fuel” because of the powerfully sweet and tangibly tangy taste. The simplicity makes it a bachelor’s dream dessert. I’m not sure I could eat more than a bite or two these days – it’s a younger man’s adventure!!
National Biscuit Company, Graham Crackers box design, circa 1915. Image via Internet Archive Book Images, No restrictions, via Wikimedia Commons
“Rocket Fuel”
1. Prepare a graham cracker crust in a pie tin (crushed graham crackers or biscoff cookies with melted butter, mixed and pressed into the tin).
2. Squeeze the juice of 5 fresh lemons into a mixing bowl.
3. Mix in two cans of sweetened condensed milk. Stir to a smooth and uniform texture.
4. Pour and spread into the pie crust and refrigerate.
P.S. [WebEditor’s note]. Some manuscripts show vials or backpacks of rocket fuel in action.
Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania, UPenn Ms. Codex 109, fol. 137r. For context: https://uniqueatpenn.wordpress.com/2013/02/05/a-rocket-cat-early-modern-explosives-treatises-at-penn/.
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Entry 4
“Lemon Bread”
In mixing bowl combine and blend:
One cup lemon juice and some grated lemon peel
One teaspoon each of baking soda and baking powder
Two tablespoons of shortening
One teaspoon almond extract
1 and 1/4 cup sugar
Two eggs
Two cups flour
1/2 cup chopped almonds
Pour mixture into greased or nonstick loaf pan and bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 50 to 60 minutes
(Test with toothpick in center to make sure it is done.)
—— Annabelle House Fox
P.S. [WebEditor’s Note]
Annabelle’s many skills include baking cookies generously for friends (including packages sent to the RGME for delicious sampling!) and photography.
For the RGME’s Theme of Bridges for this 2024 Anniversary Year, we enjoy examples of her photography such as this view of Deception Pass Bridge on a clear day.
We thank Annabelle for sharing her photographs and allowing us to share them with you.
Anacortes, Skagit County, WA. Deception Pass Bridge on a clear day, seen as the boat departs toward the west (out toward greater Puget Sound/the Salish Sea and the Strait of Juan de Fuca), with a view toward the east, showing Whidbey Island on the left, Deception Island (and parts of Fidalgo Island) on the right, and the mainland near Snee Oosh (the Swinomish Reservation) and La Conner, WA, in the far distance. Photograph by Annabelle House Fox. Reproduced by permission.
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Entry 5
“Hannah’s Wicked Awesome Cranberry Lemonade”
Our Associate and Intern Executive Assistant/Associate, Hannah Goeselt, shares this recipe.
Instructions
Mix:
1/2 lemonade to 1/2 cranberry juice (preferably Ocean Spray)
Variant:
2/3 lemonade to 1/2 cranberry juice.
NB: for fancy flavor, use Sparkling lemonade.
Story
Hannah describes her affinity to the concoction with reference not only to its downright deliciousness, but also to growing up by a cranberry bog. This she did by virtue of the location and logistics of her remarkable maternal great-grandmother’s cranberry farm.
As a characteristic image for her recipe, Hannah refers us to a photograph preserved at the University of Amherst Libraries, among the Kenneth G. Garside Papers, 1841-1876. See
- Duxbury Cranberry Company truck and float for Fourth of July parade, Garside, Kenneth G. (photographer).
In the photograph, we see the “Company name painted on the door of the truck, which is loaded with cranberry juice bottles, ca. 1938”. The Duxbury Bogs in Duxbury, Massachusetts, are located “in the upper portion of the South River watershed”.
While we check conditions for permission to reproduce that photograph here, we offer an image of cranberries in a bog on the opposite side of the continent in Washington State.
View of a coastal Washington cranberry bog. Photo by Keith Weller, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
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Entry 6
“The Joyeux Noël“
Our Trustee Justin Hastings sent this recipe on 6 January 2025, the Feast of the Epiphany or Twelfth Night after Christmas (Noël).
Story
Justin writes:
When Milly first asked me to contribute a recipe featuring lemons, I found myself thinking of my maternal grandfather, who would absolutely have said the solution to having been handed lemons by life was to squeeze them into the eyes of his enemies. However, I decided to contribute something more . . . polite.
What follows is a holiday-themed version of the French 75 that tempers the brightness of the lemon juice with the herbaceousness of thyme and the warmth of ginger.
Recipe
Simple syrup:
1 cup of sugar
1.5 cups water
Ginger root, about a 2-inch piece peeled and cut into coins
8 sprigs of thyme
Combine all ingredients in a saucepan and simmer gently for ten minutes. Strain into a
container.
For the Joyeux Noël cocktail:
1 ounce gin
.75 ounce freshly squeezed lemon juice
.5 ounce simple syrup (recipe above)
Ice
3 ounces sparkling wine
Thyme sprigs for garnish (optional)
In a cocktail shaker, combine the gin, lemon juice, simple syrup, and ice; shake for 45 seconds.
Strain into the glass, and then top up with the chilled sparkling wine of your choice, and garnish with a thyme sprig if desired.
—— Justin
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Entries and Prizes
for the Company of Friends
Send in your recipes to [email protected].
Soon we begin to award the prizes!
Please join the selection and celebration of the awards, as well as the creativity of these recipes, at the Meetings of the
Joining the Friends is free. All are welcome.
The online Meetings of the Friends are listed in our RGME Eventbrite Collection, where you can register for each event, to taste.
Meeting 3 of the Friends is scheduled for Monday 18 December 2024 at 5:30-7:00 pm EST (GMT-5) by Zoom. It will be our Holiday Party.
Meeting 4 is scheduled for Monday 27 January 2025. You can register for it here:
See you there and help us to pick the prizes!
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