The Counsellor’s Cup

Instructions

1. Rub a quarter of a pound of sugar (4 oz.) upon the rinds of two fine China oranges. Use as much as six ounces should the fruit be very acid.
2. Put the sugar into an enamelled stewpan and pour on it a pint of water. Let these boil gently for two or three minutes.
3. Pour in half a pint of China orange-juice mixed with the juice of one lemon, previously strained through muslin.
4. The moment this begins to boil, pour it into a hot jug and stir to it half a pint of the best Cognac brandy. Serve it immediately.
5. To serve it cold: prepare the syrup with the juice of the fruit, cover it down in the jug, set it into ice or a very cool place, and add the spirit only just before the cup is wanted for table.
6. A few slight strips of the rind of a Seville orange, cut very thin, would to many tastes be an agreeable addition. Always make it with fresh sound fruit.
7. Obs.: for a large cup these proportions must be doubled. Sherry or Madeira substituted for the brandy will make a pleasant cool cup of this kind; and equal parts of well made lemonade and of any good light white wine, thoroughly cooled down, gives another agreeable warm-weather beverage - though a much smaller proportion of wine would better suit many tastes.