Make Some Real Lemonade

Summer is slipping away (judging by all of the school buses I’ve been getting stuck behind during my commute lately), and I realized last week that I hadn’t made a batch of real lemonade yet this year.

By real lemonade, I don’t mean lemonade made from a powdered mix that somehow you’re supposed to feel nostalgic about, either. I mean the kind where you squeeze the lemons and grate some of the peel to put in it. If you’ve never had it, you don’t know what you’re missing.

So I recently mixed up a batch of it, using up about six lemons. I use the recipe in this 1958 Good Housekeeping recipe booklet (below) that’s been in the family for years.

And here’s the spread with the recipe. There’s some other interesting recipes to try on there as well. An Orange Rickey sounds pretty good.

You’ll note that the lemonade recipe is not for making a pitcher of lemonade. It’s for making a starter concentrate that you then use to make one glass at a time.

Here’s another page from the book with a few more drinks, including Canadian Iced Tea. Just the thing to enjoy with some back bacon or poutine.

Finally, here’s the Good Housekeeping booklet’s photo of the lemonade, although you might not notice it in the picture because of the deliciously distracting Buffet Scrambled Eggs, Crunchy Kidney-Bean Salad and Spiced Crabapples.

Strangely enough, Country Time Lemonade has apparently taken its cue from these types of vintage recipes and is now marketing its own Lemonade Starter – flavored with 5% real lemon juice.

As for me, I’ll stick with the real thing that’s 100% real lemon juice. I guess that’s why I like those Lemon Shake-ups that they sell at the Lorain County Fair.

(I’m not a snob when it comes to orange juice, though. I’ll drink just about any kind, name brand or obscure store brand, with or without pulp – whatever’s the cheapest.)