THE ORIGINAL ‘RECEIPT’

BRANDY COCOA.

1 tablespoon cocoa, 1 level tablespoon sugar, 1 ½ cups milk, a few grains salt, ¼ cup boiling water, 1 teaspoon brandy.  Scald the milk; mix cocoa, sugar and salt, adding enough boiling water to make a smooth paste;  add remaining water and boil one minute; pour into scalded milk, add brandy and beat for two minutes, using a Dover egg-beater.

~Magic Cook Book and Housekeepers Guide – 8th Edition. Toronto, Winnipeg, Montreal: E.W. Gillett Co. Ltd., 1915. “BEVERAGES FOR INVALIDS.”

THE UPDATED RECIPE

• 1 ½ c. whole milk
• ¼ c. boiling water
• 4 tsp. cocoa
• 1 Tb. granulated sugar
• a few grains of salt
• 1 tsp. brandy.

In the top of a double boiler, scald the milk over medium heat.  

In a small saucepan, boil the water.

Combine the cocoa, sugar and salt, and mix thoroughly.

Blend the dry ingredients with enough of the boiling water to make a stiff paste, then combine with the remaining boiling water, and boil together for one minute.

Add the cocoa mixture and the brandy to the scalded milk, and beat (over boiling water) with a rotary beater for two minutes, until frothy.

Serve immediately, in cups.

This won’t ‘cure’ anything, but it is lovely and soothing going down!

A note from Patricia: It’s cold, people seem to be sneezing and coughing wherever I go (ugh!), and so this recipe, from a chapter of a 1915 cookbook called “Beverages for Invalids” seemed appropriate. Plus, who doesn’t love a boozy hot chocolate. I used unsweetened oat milk in place of the whole milk, and this Brandy Cocoa was frothy and sweet and chocolatey and soothing. I snuggled up with a cup of this in the evening before bed, and felt nice and cozy (I may have used a bit more than a teaspoon of brandy).

Tea, coffee, chocolate and the like are drank from the cup and never from the saucer.

~Jefferis, B. G., Nichols, J. L., & Nichols, J. L. (Mrs.). The Household Guide or Domestic Cyclopedia. Toronto: Coles Publishing Co., 1897.