Max, you're gonna be so happy. All of those drinks are real! A "Phlegm cutter" is a shot of whiskey taken to alleviate congestion when one can't afford the adornments common in a "Hot toddy". A Gin Sling is a gin-based cocktail usually mixed with fruit juice (especially lemon) and bitters. A Singapore Sling is a common modern variant. A drink "talabogus" means a drink sweetened with molasses and usually references adding rum but not always. For example, A purl (not mentioned) is a hot beer and gin, but a purl talabogus is hot beer, rum, and molasses. Callibogus and tallibogus are interchangeable. A hail storm is any sweetened drink served in a glass with crushed ice that looks like hail. Or served with actual hail! If I were to take a guess, a hailstorm ginsling talabogus would therefore be Gin, lemon juice, bitters, rum, and molasses served in a glass with crushed ice. The man knows what he likes!
Phlegm cutter was what may father would call a shot of bourbon or whiskey when he had a cold. But I would have sworn the talabogus was bogus. Interesting how things change.
I've also seen a phlegm cutter be a shot of vodka. This was with a Ukrainian Canadian family, so clearly there's a preference for their own alcohol haha.
You definitely have to boil down the birch sap water to make it into a sweet syrup. Like others have mentioned, even maple sap isn't very sweet until you boil it. I grew up in New England and remember seeing birch syrup in country stores
This. Also once you open that jar you should keep it in the fridge and it'll only last like a week. It lasts a lot longer once it's boiled down and the sugar concentration is much higher (like maple syrup or honey last practically forever)
A syrup seller I talked to at a farmers market said that birch sap needs to be heavily reduced to make what we'd consider a syrup, the standard for table syrup being 110:1 (that is, 110 gallons of sap only makes 1 gallon of syrup!). By comparison, maple sap is reduced about 40:1, so its about 2-3x sweeter than birch in its natural state.
Yeah that was my thought as well when he got the straight birch sap. I didn't know the ratio for birch but i was like isn't maple something like 40:1? There's no way the birch sap is going to taste like much of anything straight.
A quart jar of birch sap doesn't seem to be good for anything, then, beyond sating the curiosity of people who wonder what unreduced birch sap tastes like.
I've been making a half-gallon batch of this for a daily morning drink for years now. Half a gallon of it usually lasts me a week. I make a slightly different version: 1/2 gallon water; juice of 1 lemon; 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar; knob of fresh ginger about the size of a pingpong ball, grated, 1/2 cup honey; 1 turmeric root about the size of your pinky finger, grated; and 1/4 tsp of sea salt (for electrolytes) all mixed together. The turmeric gives it a bit of an earthy taste, but I find it helps the swelling in my knees. I got this recipe off the side of an apple cider vinegar jar, minus the turmeric.
Turmeric is a great natural antioxidant and antinflammatory! We should all be consuming turmeric everyday to lower inflammation which we all have due to the toxins and harmful chemicals in our food, water, and air. Most people have some form of inflammation somewhere in their body and have no idea, it's not detectable until it is pretty bad. Also, long-term sustained inflammation is what leads to cancer. So, inflammation-reduction and prevention is also cancer-prevention.
Well this is serendipitous! I am a Mainer. My Great grandmother told me all about Switchel and what it had to do with the working men in my family. Her husband used to make it for the men when they would come in from working in the woods or fields. It was so strong, some of the men thought it was whiskey! She made it for me to try. She died this week. This was perfect timing for me. Thank you. ☺️
In case anyone else was coming to the comments to look for it, Max's recipe is 1.25gal water (20c) 1c apple vinegar 2tbsp ginger 2c sweeteners For once I actually had all the ingredients on hand so I have a batch in the fridge right now!
In a survival situation, if you are in a forest, it is possible to get birch-water, when there no other water source available or if the water source is questionable. The birch tree acts as filter. Just make thin wooden peg (about the diameter of a pencil). Carve a single groove down the length of the peg, sharpen one ends. Hammer the peg into the trunk of the birch tree, hang a collection vessel on the peg. Done right, several litres per hour of drinkable water could be had.
Thank you, Max. I've had to make switchel for my elderly father for the past few years. When he got sober 35 years ago, he drank Gatorade instead, but he developed an allergy to artificial food coloring. (Which Gatorade cannot be made without.) I began researching an alternative for an electrolyte drink (being that my father is quite active outside) and came across references to switchel. I've experimented and came up with a "just add water" mix that I make once a week in several jars, and he just dumps it in a big jar and adds water. This is my recipe, so it's strayed from the origins Max just showed us: 1/4c maple syrup 1/4c apple cider vinegar 1/4c lemon juice 1/4c lime juice 1 in piece of fresh ginger, sliced 1tsp table salt Mix all together in a pint jar, store in the fridge. EDIT:Add to 1/2 gal of cold water. It's essentially "lemon-lime Gatorade". (I had mistakenly said 1 gallon, it's a half. My apologies for destroying the world ;p ). My father loves the stuff. So, yeah, my need to make it was due to food color allergies. And the cramps the old references talk about? Muscle cramps due to potassium deficiency because of sweating too much. That's why electrolytes need to be rebalanced.
My grandma made this for my grandpa. He was a dairy farmer in Florida before air conditioner. They moved there in the 30s from Wisconsin. As a kid we loved it too. My husband and kids hate it. It was made with simple syrup, vinegar, and ginger. They called it witches brew.
Growing up, we were a dairy farming family. My paternal grandmother made switchel for the men bailing hay right up to the 1960's. The older generations of the family were tea-totalers, so no rum. I've always preferred honey as the sweetener, myself. I'm not surprised by your assessment of the flavor, as I've always enjoyed it immensely. As I did this video. Thank you!
All of those Sam Slick drinks are, as far as I can tell, real. I'll dig into it a little bit more. Some of them might be very local names for drinks that were more broadly known, but they're close enough to ring a bell as it is.
I'd absolutely love to see a collab like that. Maybe have greg make each of the drinks, then max doing snippets of history on the cocktail in the slow mo shots haha
I'm surprised sorghum wasn't mentioned as a sweetener. Great Grandma used that as sweetener in her Haymakers punch. All her older (generational) recipes were molasses, sorghum, and honey as sweetener. She used to make it for me and friends when we showed up at her place after bicycling all day. "We were drinking water like field hands" in her vernacular.
My grandparents in Georgia always had a can of sorghum syrup on the table. They ate it on cornbread and biscuits or drizzled over vegetables. A lard biscuit with ham and sorghum is a terrific breakfast.
Here's a fun fact about birch sap: it contains Xylitol, a natural sweetener that has some anti-caries properties and because of this, it is used here in Finland to make xylitol chewing gum. Birch sap has also been used here historically as an emergency beverage and an ingredient in a type of mead called mahlasima (sap mead).
@@0rderofTheWhiteLotus different kind of emergency. :p without clean water around, the birch sap water is already filtered by the tree and in spring when the leaves are budding it's plentiful & easy to get.
Grew up on this stuff. Knew it as haymakers punch, sour punch, or just switchel. Slightly different recipe but they do vary. Apple cider vinegar was always raw unfiltered with the mother. We used chunked giner root boiled down in water, and the giner chunks were removed and used for giner chew candy later. Lemon juice, cinnamon, nutmeg, your choise of sweetener, molases, honey, or maple syrup. When i was a kid my grandfather would keep 2 quarts in mason jars in the stream so we had it ice cold after haying, picking syrawberries, or tending the garden. As an adult I enjoy it on hot days after yard work with ice and a little bourbon.
Hey Seth, Any chance you could write the actual recipe down? This sounds amazing and I would like to keep it on hand for the kids this summer as well as myself with some Bourbon handy!
@nikkireigns @RickReardon -3 cups pealed and chopped ginger (roughly 1/2" chunks) about a half pound if you are buying fresh ginger. -18 cups water -2 cups lemon juice -1 1/2 cup apple cider with the mother Spiced: (your choice here) I use 1 Tbs of cinnamon and a tsp of turmeric. Bring all ingredients to a rolling boil in a large pot, covered. Once boiling, reduce to a low boil for 10 minutes. Let sit to cool for 30 minutes. Remove ginger chunks (a slotted spoon works pretty well.) Add your choice of sweatener until its as sweet as you like (maple syrup or molases are probably the best, I use Stevia as im diabetic and not a lot because i like mine on the tart side.) Refrigerate.
You can make syrup from birch just like making maple syrup it's exactly the same process. I used to make my own maple syrup and the ratio is something like 30 gallons of maple sap for one gallon of maple syrup, but for birch trees it's something like 40-50 gallons of birch sap for one gallon of syrup, so not many people do it. Hope this was helpful Max! -Another Miller
For birch it's 100 gallon of sap to 1 gallon of syrup. And it's far, far more expensive. In Europe it's € 300,00 to € 390,00 per liter (sorry don't know it in gallons), which basically turns it into pure gold.
The water from pretty much any hardwood tree can be used to make syrup, I believe, as long as it's collected at the right time. Maple became the most common for a few reasons: sugar maple trees produce a huge amount of "water" at the end of winter / beginning of spring, allowing for more syrup to be produced from the sugar maple trees, the water has a higher concentration of sugar making it possible to get more syrup out of a gallon of sugar maple water than other trees, and the flavor is generally considered the best.
And don't boil it down (either birch or maple sap) in your kitchen, or your entire kitchen will end up with stuff deposited onto every surface. Boil it down outdoors. (If my childhood experience is any indication, be sure the jars you put it into are very clean, or you'll end up with it flavored like peanut butter.)
Someone else has probably already mentioned this, but the birch sap in your recipe is probably just like maple syrup, but from a birch tree. Maples produce a sap water just like your birch water, and then it is boiled down to a small, small portion of its original volume. If you were to boil all that, you'd get like a tablespoon of birch syrup. :)
Exactly!!! Boiling the maple sap down into maple syrup takes much time and removes quite a bit of water. It looks and sounds like you are making moonshine whiskey!
From the Little House on the Prairie books; Laura carried a jug of switchel out to Pa while he was working in the fields. Ma had made it, and the entire family drank it. Pa was the one that enjoyed it the most.
I was just thinking about this! I grew up on a hay farm and was obsessed with the little house books, so I tried to make it for my dad one year. I just didn't know that apple cider vinegar and red wine vinegar were different, or what ginger was, or how to measure anything. As I recall, he took a sniff, thanked me, and said he'd drink it later.
There was a second reference in the Little House books too; I think it's at the beginning of The Long Winter when Laura helps Pa with the haying. Carrie brings the water jug out to them and Ma had made some ginger water as a surprise for them.
In one of the Little House books, Laura takes a jug of this out to Pa when he's working in the field. She didn't call it switchel, though. If I remember correctly, they just called it "ginger water." She also mentions that same ability of it to not cause stomach cramps. It's been close to thirty years since I read those books, but that ginger water has always stuck in my memory.
Wasn't there another book where Laura helped out her pa for the first time and her ma made sweet water as a treat? Or are they the same thing and I'm remembering incorrectly 😂
Those books had a ton of cool memories written in by the author with details often overlooked by the reader. There's a mention of ball lightning entering the house through the chimney and exiting out the front door in one of the books.
I remember reading 'The Long Winter' by Laura Ingalls Wilder and she mentioned that her sister Carrie briught out switchel for her and her dad when they were haying.
My dad and grandfather, being of Mid-Hudson Valley Dutch background, were still making switchel in the summertime, along with homemade root beer (which you should definitely do an episode on).
I think the 'cramps' being avoided by switchel was water cramps caused by drinking too much cold plain water too quickly, especially after heavy labour. You couldn't guzzle switchel down as quick as water, I imagine with the vinegar and ginger in it. I've had water cramps once. It's ungodly painful, I thought I was having a heart attack at age 22.
Vinegar has a lot of electrolyte precursor nutrients (magnesium, phosphorous, etc) and one cause of muscle cramps is lack of electrolytes. From the description in the video, I didn't get the impression people moderated their intake. Everyone seemed to gobble it down in copious amounts. I have to wonder if some made theirs stronger for their farmhands for exactly for the reason you described because they'd go too hard and get cramps.
@@Kowzorzvinegar does not have electrolytes in it. Vinegar triggers a spot in the back of the throat which decreases activity in the alpha motor neurons in your brain. As these neurons stop firing as frequently, the contractions in your muscles relax, and the cramps will stop. Edit: for citation. Miller, K.C., Mack, G.W., Knight, K.L., Hopkins, J.T., Draper, D.O., Fields, P.J., & Hunter, I. (2010b). Reflex inhibition of electrically induced muscle cramps in hypohydrated humans. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise. 42(5). doi: 10.1249/MSS.0b013e3181c0647e
@@sevenandthelittlestmewThis is a good comment. But also ginger is well known for relieving cramps. I take it plain for stomach aches and nausea and its pretty effective. I always have ginger at home. Im kind of surprised that not everyone is acquainted with it as a home remedy. Its pretty good. Studies on it have related to treating the nausea in chemotherapy(with pretty good results). One of the reasons it lowers inflammation is that it suppresses the production of Prostaglandins. Which stimulates inflammation. Prostaglandins has a purpose but its one of those functions the body has that has unnecessary drawbacks. Kind of like a design error. So inhibiting them is good in most cases.
@@sevenandthelittlestmew Pure vinegar is an electrolyte, electrically -- It will conduct electricity. However, no one historically is drinking pure vinegar -- that is a modern invention. Vinegar, including apple cider vinegar like used in the video, has lots of nutrients in it, including the nutrients your body needs for creating the electrolytic compounds it needs for all its various uses. I don't have to be wrong for you to be right. Both things can be true, yet you open with a patently false claim "vinegar does not have electrolytes". What is your goal here?
Hi, Max, retired Science teacher here. I've always had, and still have, a strong interest in History, in particular the technology, foods, clothing, etc. of everyday life in past times. I found your channel about a year ago, and I greatly enjoy your recipes and your presentation style. Thank you for your work in researching and presenting these foods and beverages. 👍
This actually works on a nutritional and structural level. Ginger is high in potassium and molasses is high in calcium, both of which are really important electrolytes when you've been working and sweating. The sugar elements make it more of an energy drink. And the vinegar makes it sour, which makes things feel more refreshing by promoting salivation. Basically, if they had added some ordinary salt, too, they'd have made a balanced electrolyte drink!
birch sap - in Polish called "oskoła" (~ osc-owa) is a traditional drink that used to be popular in central and eastern europe. it makes you pee more and the sugars in it do not cause the insulin spike so if you are diabetic and suddenly run out of pretty much anything else to drink but you found yourself in a birch wood you can suck on one of the branches, LOL i'm not a patron, but maybe you could do a drink called KVASS (kwas chlebowy, lit. bread acid, in Polish) - a traditional drink mostly drank in the eastern europe? it's easy to make and it wont cost you that much. also, if you ever visit baltic states make sure you get some of that in the pub.
He actually did make a type of Kvass from beets for his episode on Ukrainian borshch. th-cam.com/video/4DPu-Ve_luU/w-d-xo.html He did mention the drink Kvass made from fermented bread when talking about the ingredients for the borshch.
Love this! In Japan, we have some bath houses that have chilled vinegar drink dispensers, it's so refreshing after a hot bath! My favorite flavors are black vinegar, apple vinegar, and blueberry vinegar, and you can also buy juice boxes of them in the supermarket and the pre-mixed vinegar concentrate to dilute at home.
Hi, Vermonter here. In order to make birch syrup you need to boil down 100 galleons to make 1 galleon of good syrup because the sugar content is so low. Maple syrup has a higher sugar content so it has a ratio of 20:1, while maple sap is slightly sweet on its own, you probably would have had a similar reaction to the one you had for Birch Sap. Anyway, if you have a P.O box we could send you some actual birch syrup.
I was going to say that Birch Sap is twice to three times as diluted as maple. It was also used in 17th Century Russia to make an alcoholic drink, but it has to be boiled down to an appropriate specific gravity (around 1.05) to make a good alcohol. I don't know what else they added, but modern recipes seem to use the sap chiefly as a hydration source, and they now traditionally use linden honey for the primary sugar and add raisins to get the yeast (native wine yeasts are on the surface of raisins). From all accounts Us Yankees used to make Spruce Beer with Birch or Maple with fresh spruce tips for a bittering agent. But the energy investment in birch sap is much higher than maple, cause its more dilute, so it is not common.
If you use Barbados style baking molasses, you will get sweetness without the bitter. I experimented with the Townsends recipe and eventually came across that molasses. That works really well with it
You are right, in the 18th and 19th century all molasses was sweet or Barbados molasses. There was no Blackstrap molasses. Today you can find Fancy molasses (sweet) or Cooking molasses (less sweet) at the supermarket in the baking section.
Max, never underestimate the power (or flavor) of apple cider vinegar. If you doubt, you should check out Laura Ingalls Wilder's Green Pumpkin Pie, which her mother made - see her book The Long Winter. An early freeze had killed their pumpkin vines before the pumpkins could ripen, so her frugal mother made tastiness of necessity. A recipe for it is included in The Little House Cookbook by Barbara M Walker. I've made it myself, and when done well it's a delicious "apple" pie - with the apple flavor coming from the vinegar. The first hurdle to making it is getting a green pumpkin, that is, an unripe one. I had to grow my own , and in making mine I found it works best to slice it very thin and parboil it before putting it in the pie. Another great video!
I remember this so well in the book! In the same book, Ma makes a jug of ginger water for Pa and Laura to drink while they are making hay. She lists water, sugar, ginger, and vinegar as the ingredients.
@@VaveeDances OMG I just wrote the same comment about the ginger water, but I don't remember the exact description (its been quite a while). Glad to read confirmation about the recipe.
My wife taught me about switchel and it’s a great drink after yard work. I’ve added salt for more electrolytes and cinnamon because it tastes good. I may need to make some with the mountain of mint I have growing. Thanks for spreading the gospel of switchel.
We would always chuck a few stalks of mint into lemonade in peak summer heat for a refreshing beverage as well. Either muddle leaves or just add a few whole stalks to a pitcher of lemonade for an easy twist in summer. Also works very well with a spicy/sweet basil in conjunction with minty or regular lemonade.
My Dad (born in 1927) worked in the hay fields in Hanover south of Boston as a teenager and spoke of switchel being one of the perks of the job. He also loved shrubs and I still make them every summer. Great videos!
There have been some analysis on "haymaker's switchel" which btw is similar to Roman Posca, and the addition of molasses as the sweetener adds electrolytes, and couple that with it being chilled in a spring or stream to lower one's core temperature, and you have a very effective "sports drink" during or after a long hot day's work. Great Video!
This guy is living the life. He had an interest, he started sharing his love for it, and now he can earn a living from it. I'm both happy for him, and envious XD
@@erad67 - As I understand it from earlier episodes, Mr Miller was a Disney performer - played a Prince at some point - and with the pandemic, Disney went into a hiatus. Nobody was laid off. When the hiatus was over and they were called back, "Tasting History" had already taken off, so he stuck with it. I am not sure if the performers were kept on the payroll or not. Ask him!
@@MossyMozart OK, that sounds more accurate than what I said. I know he was offered his old job back later, but I forget what exactly his job was. Anyways, my point was he went through a rough patch before doing so well.
Holy cow! I grew up in Northern Illinois, the product of a pure German mother (and maternal family of course) and she made this when I was a kid working in the garden (I did have cousins that lived on a farm, but I was basically a suburbanite). We did indeed call it "harvest drink". I asked her for the recipe years ago and then lost it, and she's since passed. Thank you for this!
@@joyful_tanya Howdy from Central Texas. I've lived in Texas now for 37 years, and plenty of Germans and Czechs here too, thanks to the Mexican government that invited them to settle in the early 1800's. It's almost like home, except HOTTER, lol... more harvest drink please.
@@joyful_tanya Indeed. No rain here for at least 3 months so far... possibly some change coming the end of next week. Y'all take care up there, ya hear? 🤠
In the 1980s I spent several summers working on a relative's farm in Austria. One of the primary beverages they had was "most", hard pear cider that was made on the farm. On days we were bringing in hay, in the morning we would prepare several jugs of "most" with added water and vinegar, to drink throughout the day. This video brought back some good memories!
While watching this video, I realized I had the ingredients to make this switchel. A pleasant beverage that is a nice alternative for drinking apple cider vinegar. The ginger powder resulted in a beverage that seems to have a warming effect in my body. This might be a nice warm drink to have in the winter. I grew up enjoying molasses Joe Frogger cookies that were popular in the 19th century. So this beverage has a nostalgic taste to me.
You can harvest your own birch sap (we call it something like "birch juice" in Scandinavia) directly from birch trees, similar to how you would harvest the base liquid for making maple syrup. It is indeed pretty thin and watery, but it's supposed to contain a lot of vitamin C and other good stuff.
We have loads and loads of birch trees here in Scandinavia, but birch syrup is not particularly common. As it takes a lot more reducing to make a syrup compared to Canadians have with their mapels and maple syrup. I believe the ratios is like a hundred to one or something. 100 liters of sap to make a liter of syrup. I don’t remember the number but being suprised by how big it was, and that it was a much larger then for maple syrup. Like I’ve heard of people collecting birch sap, and I’ve tasted it. But it’s not commonly used in most regions. Maybe it’s specialty in some county or region in some Scandinavian country that have made it their thing. Entirely possible. But I’m not aware of it.
What's weird about this channel is the videos were ALWAYS this high quality. I remember when this channel had like 3000 subs, and it was already polished and well made and researched. Most channels ramp up the quality as people gain interest. Max and them just made it 2M good, then it just filled in. I can't think of another channel that's like that.
IF, you're a Car Guy at all, theres a (huge channel) small shop of friends in Idaho called Grind Hard Plumbing Co....same thing, a small group of friends with a penchant for amazing videography, intense Car Guy attitude, and amazing content.
There’s another food history channel or just history channel called “Townsends” or what used to be, I think is “Jas(James) Townsend and sons.” They used to focus more on 18th century cooking but have since branched out into 18th century culture altogether. A little more narrow in subject as it’s only 18th century but the research is good. And they reaally live 18th century, I describe them as “larping but 18th century” the sets, the dress, the tools, everything is 18th century lol. I’m assuming that you don’t know the channel ofc
@@karu6111 yeah that guy has been a meme for a while lol. His orange fool video was talked about a lot because everyone thought it was alluding to Trump, and there were a couple other very popular uploads like the fried chicken recipe. A+ channel.
This sounds amazing, so I will definitely try it. As far as birch sap, you are correct that it tastes like water. However, if you boil it down, like you would maple syrup (except maple is 40:1 to 60:1 and birch is 100:1 or 120:1) you will create birch syrup. Now the flavour of birch syrup is more savory than maple syrup, but it does have some sweetness to it. I usually use birch syrup in marinades for game (venison, moose or bear) and it works really well to add flavour and not take away from the flavor of the meat.
As a former professional mixologist and current sober housedad, I love learning about these eclectic beverages both alcoholic and otherwise! I will try this intriguing mixture for sure
@@yseson_ Yeah, I lived the restaurant/bar night life for 16 years and was very good at my craft but it was killing me, literally and figuratively. Nowadays I just prepare balanced meals for my family and enjoy nature, video games and mock tails! My current favorite is peach flavored soda water, OJ and a splash of grapefruit juice
Please share some more sober drinks! I was an alcoholic for years and now can’t even metabolize alcohol properly (due to perimenopause) so I can’t even have it in moderation anymore. I get so tired of water.
Flavored soda waters are my best friends; cheap, no sugar and add effervescence to any beverage. I have seen sodas with blackberry lemonade, currant and even ginger on the shelves of my local supermarket. Another good addition is Gatorade as just a splash can add some color and a bit of heavier liquid to cut very thin combos. For the summer you can try raspberry lemonade/sweet tea and the cold months I like ginger soda with a splash of vanilla and cider 😊
I made this! It's pretty good. Very acidic, reminiscent of lemonade but not nearly as sweet and a little apple-spice-y instead of lemon-y. If you like lemonade, you'll probably like this. I'm making a full batch for my guests this weekend, it's tasty and it'll be a fun talking point!
This is it! When i was little, i had the Little House on the Prairie cookbook and my bro (bless him) helped me make a batch of "molasses water" from it. It was served warm or cold. Bro about died gagging, but i loved it. Thank you for your hard work, Max, you really are incredible with your research! 💖🙏🕊
Yeah I was thinking of the part in one of the books where Ma makes ginger water for Pa and Laura working in the field. Must've been similar. Sounds like fun!
Yes! I knew I wouldn't be the only one that remembered Ma sending Carrie out to Pa & Laura with a jug while the were making hay. I believe it's in The Long Winter opening chapter "Make Hay While the Sun Shines," but I don't have my books handy to look. I remember the mention in the book that Ma had "added plenty of ginger to warm their stomachs," so they could chug without getting sick. I always wondered if it tasted similar to ginger ale?
Oh, geez, it's been forever since I read the "Little House" books, but now that you bring it up, the drink sounds familiar. I'm 45, but may have to wander into the kids' section of the local library to see if they have them. 😅
I've been making switchel for a couple of years, and this summer, I made some for my dad, ( a farmer) who's been working outside in the hot sun, and he said it's the best thing he's ever drunk. Makes him feel very refreshed and quenches his thirst marvelously! He doesn't drink anything else when he's working outside anymore. Great way to help keep heat exhaustion at bay, too.
Made the Switchel yesterday and chilled it overnight. Just had some this morning and it is delightful. I can taste the molasses, the apple and the ginger, but not the vinegar. It is refreshing, a touch smoky and just a hint of bitter. Not a harsh bitter - a molasses bitter. I like it a lot and it will become a hot weather staple in my fridge. Thank you Max, for telling us about this drink.
In the 1960's I used to work the hay fields of my uncle's farm in upstate New York. We always had a big jug of switchel to quench our thirst and it was always very enjoyable! Great childhood memories.
So great you never made it yourself eh? If you did drink it still,it would have been indicated in your statement.. Must be so great memories because even at 40, no one from the 1960s or before has made this and its the first time I heard of it. Like a bunch of hipsters are like oh yea it was so good it was the best, but then you ask when they last had it...1960s...1970s, that says it was far from good
@@jamesmeppler6375: You are a clueless idiot. Switchel was a relatively common summertime thirst-quencher in the hayfields of Upstate NY in the Sixties, and early Seventies even. The recipes used by young farm wives then were passed down from older folk born in the 19th century.
I actually make this all the time! Especially if I’m going to be drinking or be outside for a while. It’s revived many friends. And it helps with a hangover
I'm from Germany, a few years back I found a recope for Switchel in a magazine (which made it sound as if Switchel was super popular in rhe southern states of USA) it used fresh gingerbwhich zou cooked in tthe water (and I used maple and honez to sweeten). I loved it. Thanks for reminding me. Will make some ASAP 😊
Just tried this. Used cinnamon instead of ginger, and I only had blackstrap molasses so I used a little bit of it, a lot of honey, and some maple syrup. It was delicious and very refreshing. Thank you for sharing this with everyone!
@@drachenfeuer5042 I just shortened what he did here down a bit. I had some quart jars laying around, so I used that. Blackstrap sucks, so I retried the recipe without it and its much better: 1 quart of water 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar 1/4 cup maple syrup 1/4 cup honey about half a tablespoon of ground cinnamon and then I added some redmond salt just for a bit of flavor, but that's optional I did one with and one without rum. The one with rum was just a shot of bacardi white rum, since that's what I had on hand. When you have everything in the jar, just shake it really good until the honey mixes in and then it's ready to drink. Highly recommend it, kept me hydrated working outside today. Definitely going to be a staple in this household from now on.
Ginger is the main energizing ingredient in this farmer's Gatorade but cinnamon may also work somewhat. Molasses and honey are both sweeteners but they also enhance the absorption of the ginger. I know much less about the nutritional properties of acv because I puke every time I drink it. I can't handle it no matter how much I dilute it in water. The syrup adds more body to the beverage and the ginger also helps alleviate nausea, but I'm still afraid to drink this.
Fascinating video! Definitely going to make this. The thirst quencher my mother used to make in the 60’s and 70’s was equal parts apple cider vinegar and honey into a contrite stored in the fridge. When a new jug of beverage was needed, a half inch was poured into a pitcher and water added to the top. So delicious! Absolutely the best thirst quencher. We had it at every meal as well to “aid digestion.”
Amazing video as always! Here's another fun drinking history idea: The King's Ginger, the drink specifically formulated for King Edward VII for when he was driving his automobile. Yes, you heard me right, an alcoholic drink made specifically for when King Edward VII wanted to drive.
I had to go look that up right away, and and can only think it's really good that so few people were driving back then. You don't want to share a road with a king who's like "Hand me my driving liquor"
My dad grew up on the Canadian east coast during the '40s. They drank a version of this made with maple syrup instead of molasses and cinnamon instead of ginger. He loved it and bemoaned the fact that my mom didn't and so never made it for him. I remember having it once when visiting my grandparents but my grandma was on a health kick at the time and didn't put any sweetener in it... None at all! 6 year old me thought it was disgusting! And judging from my dad's expression he agreed! 😂 I'll definitely try it again now, with maple syrup,
I went ahead and made some switches this morning as I watched Max’s wonderful video. Reminds me of vinegar/honey water that my dad drank every morning. The satchel is sooo sweet that I diluted it about 1:3 with water. (No rum.) it is very good. I used golden syrup for sweetener.
You might also try something called sekanjabin. It is another vinegar drink but concentrated as a shelf stable syrup that can be diluted later over ice. Several flavor variations available for this drink including mint and nice to keep around for a quick refreshment in the summer.
Birch beer and birch syrup (made from birch sap) were the kinds of things that were common around our house or at my aunt's house. She usually had a case or two of birch beer on the shelf & we boys were expected to tap the trees each spring to get sap for both the maple syrup and birch syrup. Anyway, both were popular ways to sweeten and flavor things before sugar was really easy to get. As a side note, up until the 20th century, sugar in the US had to come from those areas that could grow sugar cane. Growing beets for sugar has made sugar much easier for us to manufacture and the methods we use to grow them has gotten much better and more productive over the past 100 years.
Orange County, CA used to grow and refine beet sugar when I was a little girl in the 1970s. I was miles away from the refinery but when the wind came from that direction, it STANK. The building looked like a workhouse from Dickens and was replaced by a huge pink hotel by the 1980s. All this land is now developed. (Just like the butter bean fields around South Coast Plaza and the strawberries north of Disneyland.)
@@splendidcolors, I actually lived in Tustin & the Lake Forest areas in the early 2000's. Even then there were still citrus groves & strawberry fields south of Tustin & all around El Toro. They made the decision to convert El Toro to the park when I was there. Now it's all built up. Anyway, Michigan Sugar is a big employer in the area of Michigan where I grew up. I'm very familiar with that nasty smell that comes from the sugar plant. I never knew they grew beets in Orange County, though. I'll bet that used a lot of water. Where was that factory before it got replaced?
You reactions in this are absolutely hilarious and entertaining. That look of shock and "why did this go out of fashion" are priceless Ok its 10 mins later, ive just made this and its delicious tasted almost exactpy like this brand of apple and ginger juice you used to be able to buy from Tesco and Dunnes called Crawston Press. It should be even nicer if you steeped it in real ginger or used frozen crystalised ginger in place of ice cubes when serving it
I grew up in Massachusetts and my Grandma would make it in the dog days of August. We called it ginger water. She swore that you could chug it down when you were really thirsty and the ginger would keep you from feeling nauseous from drinking too quickly ❤
As a native New Englander, and an avid switchel enthusiast i heartily approve of this video! I was already drinking a big cup r of switchel when i found this video. i make it by the pitcherful every summer, or whenever i want something sweet and want it to be better for me than soda etc Other than water and coffee, it is the beverage i drink the most of
Interesting as always. When I was a young boy (at the moment I’m 72) I somehow came across a recipe for something called “Fake Apple Cider” which was basically vinegar and sugar with possibly some cinnamon) - a curious child. I decided to make some. It really did taste like apple cider. The recipe was presented as a sort of magic trick rather than a serious potable, so it appears to have been a tail end artifact of switchel.
Ngl I thought this was a Townsends video and thought ”huh, I thought they already did that, I’ll watch it later” and then the Discord alert came through 😅
I had the same reaction when I made my first batch of switchel! Eventually discovered that it is really quite refreshing to slam a glass of cold switchel after a long bike ride or run or mowing the lawn. Something about it really does make it quite refreshing.
I love my switchel! I started drinking it during workouts instead of Gatorade because I can control the amount of sugar. You can cold steep all sorts of herbal teas in it as well to switch up the flavour.
I live in upstate New York and my grandfather used to make birch syrup. He would add the birch berries and wild blackberries, we never had the sap water so I don’t know if it was supposed to taste like that but the syrup was always excellent
I've been waiting for Max to do swichel since he started up drinking history. You can actually take out about half the water a little bit of a sweetener and replace that with juice to give it a fruit flavor. I recommend cherry
Max saying "this is delightful" made my day and I don't even know why. Btw I know birch water as a hair care/ skin care product against dandruff, you get it in every drug store in Germany and I often use it
Great episode! Max, I believe you got mixed up about birch water vs. birch syrup. Birch water is a beverage made with a tiny bit of the syrup. Supposed to be invigorating, much like switchel. The actual birch syrup straight from the tree that it is made from is harder to acquire, but you can still get it online. It would be much sweeter than what you have here, although I believe it is still not quite as sweet as maple syrup. It is also made into soda: "birch beer" is an analog to "ginger ale." I used to work in a store that carried birch water and birch beer. The soda is pretty good!
Thank you! I'd all but forgotten switchel! I first heard of it from a living historian working a "frontier" garden in Kentucky. He recommended trying it with bourbon, of course. I only recall two things about the drink- I used organic raw vinegar and at the end of a long work day a swallow of it was like a kick in the butt! I went from trembling with exhaustion to ready to till another couple hundred feet of garden row! I'm more easily exhausted these days and working a much smaller garden. Next trip to the market I'll be buying some good vinegar and fresh ginger.
I’d go out on a limb, and say that the concoction by itself would start to naturally ferment as long as nothing had been pasteurized. First press golden or baking molasses would have enough sugar in it to start the process. So some people getting a little tipsy on it if it sat long enough is definitely a possibility. It’s funny that you just posted this over a week ago. I just purchased a bunch of molasses to make some.
@@Canalcoholic molasses is what is used to ferment to make into rum. Have to wonder what a cup of molasses or maple syrup would do to a gallon of non chilled Switchel. My uncle had a apple orchard and would make apple cider. Had gallons of it lining the wall. It would all naturally ferment. Like apple soda with a low little kick.
@@jasonfoley4677 I do know how rum is made, and probably most other alcoholic drinks on this planet. A cup of molasses added to a gallon of water, whether an American gallon (approx. 3.8 litres) or a British gallon (approx. 4.5 litres) could yield less than 1% alcohol by volume.
I've been working on cocktail recipes on the basis of switchel since I made an approximation of it as a sorely needed energy drink before a long run. My off the cuff recipe included honey, cider vinegar, salt, ginger, and rosewater and was surprisingly complex and delicious.
I grew up on a farm in western Massachusetts in the '70s, and during haying season--late June to July, Grandma and Grandpa made it for us. I don't know how it was spelled, but I heard it as "switzel". The recipe @01:22 looks about right, but since we made our own maple syrup, they used that instead of molasses.
I remember reading about Ma Ingalls making this recipe for Laura and Pa during harvesting in The Long Winter book. I had no idea about its history. I always wanted to try it> So exciting to see it brought to life! Thank You !
Besides a spring or well to cool your jug of drink, you could also wrap it in burlap that was soaked in water. The evaporation of the water from the burlap wrap would cool the jug and its contents if you weren't close to a cold brook, spring or well. And, I think that trying to find recipes for those "other" drinks from the Sam Slick character would be a great episode. Maybe even make some of the recipes if you can find them... As an example, a hail stormginsling-talabogus may just be a gin sling made with hailstones and a substitution for bitters. I did find that in the early 1800s there was a drink called the "purl talabogus" that was made by mixing rum (or other liquors) with spruce beer and molasses. Also, a "phlegm-cutter" was a double portion of a cocktail taken before breakfast, and a "gum tickler" was a gill (4 US fluid ounces) of a strong spirit, like rum, taken after fasting. So, I think that you really are on to something fun!
This is the first time since I left the farm that I heard the phrase " making hay". Milking was also known as "making milk"... Brings back a host of memories, thank you..
I remember reading about this in the Little House on the Prairie series! Laura and Pa are harvesting hay and Ma sends Carrie out with a jug of ginger water with vinegar. They said that Ma would add ginger so it wouldn’t turn their stomachs if they drank a lot after working hard in the heat.
That sounds kind of like what my grandparents said. They claimed that the vinegar would prevent you from throwing up due to drinking something cold when you're real hot.
I'm glad I'm not the only one! I have no idea why but for whatever reason, that passage from the Little House books is the first thing I thought about when I was listening to this. I read those books *decades* ago and I remember that bit like it was yesterday, lol
I love switchel; I first read about it as a teenager in New England and decided to give it a try to see what they'd been drinking in my neck of the woods back when it was mostly farmland. I was also surprised by how the vinegar taste sort of melted away in the face of the rest of the drink. You can use that birch sap to make birch beer; which is another one of those old North American drinks in the same vein as root beer or sarsaparilla. It's most popular in the northeastern corner of the continent where the plants for the other two drinks aren't found or are less common.
I've had commercially-made birch beer. It didn't taste any different than root beer. Maybe the commercial version didn't capture the essence of the real thing. My grandmother used to make home-made root beer every summer. Or maybe I should say, she tried to. She'd get it all mixed up and put into bottles. Then she said she had to leave the bottles out on the back porch overnight. Every time she did it, the bottles would explode in the middle of the night. I never got to try any of it! Yet she kept doing it year after year!
For once, I had everything on hand to make something, so I immediately went into my kitchen and made some switchel. I only made a half-gallon to try it, but it tastes delicious as is, and now it's in the fridge to cool. So thankful for such a nice refreshing drink!
Great Recipe Max, Here's what I used for mine: Apple Cider Vinegar, Golden Syrup (as I'm in the UK), Nutmeg & Cinnamon and Spiced Rum. I've got a cold stream on my dad's farm that will be used when it's time for hay baling!
Now I'm envisioning Max throwing a Tasting History party where he cooks various historical recipes and serves switchel and other historic drinks. Days of preparation! Then as the party goers enjoy the prepared food, Max tells them all about the history of each one and they discuss!
In one of the Little House books, Laura is helping PA get the hay harvested. At one point, Ma brings them something to drink, what the author calls ginger water. I wonder if she might have been referring to switchel or something like it. It is mentioned that it will keep the drinker from getting cramps.
Apple cider vinegar works well as a sweetener. The first time i heard someone put it in their hot tea, i thought they were crazy. It was surprisingly good and helps with soar throats. Imagine if we had stuck to healthy"ish" drinks instead of corn syrup and citric acid.
@@phantomkate6diluted vinegar in water is way less acidic than soda and most fruit juices. You need less than a tablespoon per glass of water to make it (too much and it tastes like vinegar, you know you have it "just right" when it tastes refreshing and not vinegary)
They could also cool their drink, by having a cloth cover and wetting it to let it "sweat" or evaporate in the wind. Not cold mind you, but cooler than otherwise.
I remember when you first made this channel, and you got big enough to do this as a full time job. It's so cool, the value in your videos is very high, you're obviously very dedicated to doing a good job. I appreciate your videos, keep doing a good job!
I've been working on a family cookbook to ensure recipes are getting handed down. Everyone in the family very clearly made sure that I better include the family switchel recipe in the book. I had never heard of it before, glad to see that it is a big thing.
When i make switchel i always add some form of fruit juice to it. A hint of lemon or even better the leftover apple juice/syrup from applesauce making, makes it amazing. Served iced on a hot day is by far the most refreshing drink out there. I would like to note that you should remember to drink plenty of water (or just lots of switchel) as well because switchel can trick your body into feeling more hydrated than it is. It's why i often make a glass or two in the mornings, the hot days don't bother me nearly as much as they should.
This video makes my New England pride very happy. Me born and raised in Western Massachusetts there’s still scary large amounts of farmland around here. Switchel is definitely different with everyone, if you have plenty of oak trees and what not around then you would definitely make it with maple syrup and of course if you have kids, you would have it be non-alcoholic unless you buy the alcoholic version from a friend. Best thing to do is make it with ginger during hot weather or with nutmeg if it’s cold weather. Believe me, I know the weird combinations of things that we eat in New England doesn’t make sense but it works.
"... if you have plenty of oak trees ... around then you would definitely make it with maple syrup..." You guys make maple syrup vastly differently than I expected.
As someone who moved to the region from Utah, New England may as well be a different country. That’s not an insult at all, btw! It’s a good place with decent people. You guys definitely do things differently, though, and your food is no exception!
Thanks for the wonderful switchel episode. My grandmother (who lived for a time on a farm in Vermont along the New York border) gave us a very similar recipe (without the ginger--or rum) based on Vermont folk medicine. She referenced "Folk Medicine" by Dr. D.C. Jarvis, who combined apple cider vinegar and honey, and provided a medical rationale for the drink.
the name died out before the practice did; drinks like this (locally omitting the ginger) were very common for the generation ahead of mine working on farms in southern ontario - that puts it as at least still in favor for its practical purpose into the 70s. Modern iteration on it indeed probably omits much of the sugar, as we've become more aware of the issues we give ourselves by consuming too much.
I've tapped a birch this year, the taste is subtle but excellent. The sap extracted replaced my bottled water intake througout early spring. But yes, the sweetness is almost undetectable unless I boiled down quite a lot, as birch has 2x less sugar in its sap than maple.
This video caught my eye because in the late 70’s we drank switchel made by one of my good friends grandmother while we were haying in NY state. Way over in the SW corner of the state. So quite a ways from New England. She was native Indian and her husband was of European decent I suppose. Anyhow, it really did quench your thirst and I remember honey and ginger in it. No Rum unfortunately but we were like 10. Of course she is long gone, but I’ll try to remember to ask him the next time I speak with him if he has the recipe she used. I have described this drink to my kids in the past years. They have no clue how good it was when you were about ready to pass out from heat exhaustion and hard work! Great video btw.
Here on the east coast, we have a soda called birch beer that uses birch syrup. It comes in three varieties: clear, red, or brown, depending on which area you are in. It is similar to root beer, but definitely has its own unique flavor. Highly recommended.
Tell us more, Andrew. You mean these sodas are on a store shelf? What's the brand name? Or homemade? And I assume you mean the East coast of the U.S. ?
@@paulmaxwell8851 Yes, the east coast of the US. The sodas are pretty widely available here, depending on your region. From New England to the Mid Atlantic region, you can find it readily. The farther south you go, say down to Georgia or Florida, it becomes more of a specialty item and more difficult to find. The two most popular brands where I live are Boylan's and Pennsylvania Dutch, which I believe is owned by Coca Cola now. They are both red birch beers, which are the most common here. Farther north, they prefer the clear or brown varieties. You can make your own, though I have never done it. The process is very similar to making root beer. It is also a bit more expensive, as birch syrup (which is made from birch sap, much like maple syrup is made from maple sap) is pretty expensive. While you need approximately 40 gallons of maple sap to make a gallon of maple syrup, you need more like 110 gallons of birch sap to make just one gallon of birch syrup. Hope all of this helps!
We make Switchel in the summer, but with Steen's pure cane syrup, and keep a jug in an antique fridge on the back porch (along with some Havana Club brown, for those who want to add it). It really cuts a thirst like no other. 👍
The recipe's implication that maple sap is only boiled down halfway to get syrup is not right at all. I know people who make maple syrup. From a quick Google, it's a 40 to 1 situation whereas Birch syrup takes 110 gallons to make 1 gallon of syrup. I think you were expecting a jar of syrup. 😅4:31
Man I love to your content lol. Everyone in my family watches your channel now. As a homeschooler, your videos have become a fun way to learn and doubles as a fun "experiment" after. Thank you for having clean content, too. Rare find these days. Anyhow, thank you!
Imagine writing down that recipe in 1856. You'd have *no* idea that in 160 years, someone would make it on a "video" and beam it across the world for millions to see and enjoy.
This was the first of your videos I've seen. I have to say, I love the way you formatted this video. I really appreciate that I was seeing the recipe within the first five minutes! I'm sure you know how bad most recipe websites are with their life story before they learned how to make alfredo sauce. I really liked the pace of this video as well as all of the neat historical facts. Keep up the good work and I look forward to future and past videos! Liked and Subscribed!
I'll have you know that at least one person, a friend of mine, has already made and is enjoying this beverage as I'm watching this video. You're enriching lives, Max!
Get 1 month of TH-cam Premium FREE at th-cam.com/users/premium?cc=tastinghistory
Did it make you poop?
I've had TH-cam premium for years now and won't ever go back. The music is a nice bonus!
Ive had primeum for the past 8 years... Strange how this is the first time I've seen an in video add for it happy to see you get sponserd
> Vinegar
> Sour
> TH-cam Premium
I see what you did there
Is there a place where we can get a typed up copy of the recipes too?
Max, you're gonna be so happy. All of those drinks are real!
A "Phlegm cutter" is a shot of whiskey taken to alleviate congestion when one can't afford the adornments common in a "Hot toddy".
A Gin Sling is a gin-based cocktail usually mixed with fruit juice (especially lemon) and bitters. A Singapore Sling is a common modern variant.
A drink "talabogus" means a drink sweetened with molasses and usually references adding rum but not always. For example, A purl (not mentioned) is a hot beer and gin, but a purl talabogus is hot beer, rum, and molasses. Callibogus and tallibogus are interchangeable.
A hail storm is any sweetened drink served in a glass with crushed ice that looks like hail. Or served with actual hail!
If I were to take a guess, a hailstorm ginsling talabogus would therefore be Gin, lemon juice, bitters, rum, and molasses served in a glass with crushed ice. The man knows what he likes!
One must pause to wonder whether such a legendary litany was simply his first order one night.
Phlegm cutter was what may father would call a shot of bourbon or whiskey when he had a cold. But I would have sworn the talabogus was bogus. Interesting how things change.
Fascinating! Thank you for the information.
I've also seen a phlegm cutter be a shot of vodka. This was with a Ukrainian Canadian family, so clearly there's a preference for their own alcohol haha.
What was a Switchel Flip?
You definitely have to boil down the birch sap water to make it into a sweet syrup. Like others have mentioned, even maple sap isn't very sweet until you boil it. I grew up in New England and remember seeing birch syrup in country stores
This. Also once you open that jar you should keep it in the fridge and it'll only last like a week. It lasts a lot longer once it's boiled down and the sugar concentration is much higher (like maple syrup or honey last practically forever)
Started to say I have had it and it is quite flavorful. Granted mine was likely boiled down because I got it from... moonshine distillers.
you can also ferment the birch sap water with sugar and lemon or raisins and make a drink out of that. people in eastern europe do it.
"Not everyone was so tolerant of their neighbor's switchel recipe..."
Maple sap is my favorite drink mixer during syruping seas🍸
A syrup seller I talked to at a farmers market said that birch sap needs to be heavily reduced to make what we'd consider a syrup, the standard for table syrup being 110:1 (that is, 110 gallons of sap only makes 1 gallon of syrup!). By comparison, maple sap is reduced about 40:1, so its about 2-3x sweeter than birch in its natural state.
Wow!
Yes, that is correct, it's mostly just water.
Yeah that was my thought as well when he got the straight birch sap. I didn't know the ratio for birch but i was like isn't maple something like 40:1? There's no way the birch sap is going to taste like much of anything straight.
I would love to make and taste birch beer. Maple beer sounds disgusting. I think the birch is worth the effort
A quart jar of birch sap doesn't seem to be good for anything, then, beyond sating the curiosity of people who wonder what unreduced birch sap tastes like.
I've been making a half-gallon batch of this for a daily morning drink for years now. Half a gallon of it usually lasts me a week. I make a slightly different version: 1/2 gallon water; juice of 1 lemon; 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar; knob of fresh ginger about the size of a pingpong ball, grated, 1/2 cup honey; 1 turmeric root about the size of your pinky finger, grated; and 1/4 tsp of sea salt (for electrolytes) all mixed together. The turmeric gives it a bit of an earthy taste, but I find it helps the swelling in my knees. I got this recipe off the side of an apple cider vinegar jar, minus the turmeric.
Thanks!
Do you strain out the grated ginger?
@queenbeeautumn please do 😅
@@queenbeeautumn I leave all the ginger pulp in there myself. But you could strain it out.
Turmeric is a great natural antioxidant and antinflammatory! We should all be consuming turmeric everyday to lower inflammation which we all have due to the toxins and harmful chemicals in our food, water, and air. Most people have some form of inflammation somewhere in their body and have no idea, it's not detectable until it is pretty bad. Also, long-term sustained inflammation is what leads to cancer. So, inflammation-reduction and prevention is also cancer-prevention.
spiced vinegar seems to be a common drink across history
It really is
Well, you have to do something with it when the wine turns.
Lemonade is very popular now on a hot day. Vinegar is just another tart addition to a beverage before citrus was widely available.
@@Zoot_of_AnthraxQuite true. In moderation its quite good for you after exercise too
This reminds me of the Roman "Posca".
Well this is serendipitous! I am a Mainer. My Great grandmother told me all about Switchel and what it had to do with the working men in my family. Her husband used to make it for the men when they would come in from working in the woods or fields. It was so strong, some of the men thought it was whiskey! She made it for me to try. She died this week. This was perfect timing for me. Thank you. ☺️
Sorry for your loss!
so sorry for your loss
Sorry for your loss. May she live on in your favorite recipes.
Sorry for your loss. Make a jug of switchel.
❤
In case anyone else was coming to the comments to look for it, Max's recipe is
1.25gal water (20c)
1c apple vinegar
2tbsp ginger
2c sweeteners
For once I actually had all the ingredients on hand so I have a batch in the fridge right now!
You can use lemon juice in place of vinegar if you like.
c? Like cubic something? A cc is a cubic centimeter a.k.a. a milliliter. But you prbly dun mean that 😅
EDIT: ooooh, cups
How was it?
I think ill use crystallized ginger in mine. Sounds yummy. Will add some maple syrup too.
@@Broocklei think it's supposed to be "cups"
In a survival situation, if you are in a forest, it is possible to get birch-water, when there no other water source available or if the water source is questionable. The birch tree acts as filter. Just make thin wooden peg (about the diameter of a pencil). Carve a single groove down the length of the peg, sharpen one ends. Hammer the peg into the trunk of the birch tree, hang a collection vessel on the peg. Done right, several litres per hour of drinkable water could be had.
Thank you, Max. I've had to make switchel for my elderly father for the past few years. When he got sober 35 years ago, he drank Gatorade instead, but he developed an allergy to artificial food coloring. (Which Gatorade cannot be made without.)
I began researching an alternative for an electrolyte drink (being that my father is quite active outside) and came across references to switchel. I've experimented and came up with a "just add water" mix that I make once a week in several jars, and he just dumps it in a big jar and adds water.
This is my recipe, so it's strayed from the origins Max just showed us:
1/4c maple syrup
1/4c apple cider vinegar
1/4c lemon juice
1/4c lime juice
1 in piece of fresh ginger, sliced
1tsp table salt
Mix all together in a pint jar, store in the fridge.
EDIT:Add to 1/2 gal of cold water. It's essentially "lemon-lime Gatorade".
(I had mistakenly said 1 gallon, it's a half. My apologies for destroying the world ;p ).
My father loves the stuff. So, yeah, my need to make it was due to food color allergies.
And the cramps the old references talk about? Muscle cramps due to potassium deficiency because of sweating too much. That's why electrolytes need to be rebalanced.
Thanks for sharing your recipe!
You might also check out Pokari Sweat, a Japanese brand of electrolyte beverage. No artificial dyes or flavors, and it tastes like grapefruit juice.
I just made a batch following Max's recipe. It was good, yours looks awesome, trying it next! Thank you!
@Swindle1984 It is, unfortunately also quite expensive to buy in the US.
This would probably also be great if made with carbonated water.
My grandma made this for my grandpa. He was a dairy farmer in Florida before air conditioner. They moved there in the 30s from Wisconsin. As a kid we loved it too. My husband and kids hate it. It was made with simple syrup, vinegar, and ginger. They called it witches brew.
Growing up, we were a dairy farming family. My paternal grandmother made switchel for the men bailing hay right up to the 1960's. The older generations of the family were tea-totalers, so no rum. I've always preferred honey as the sweetener, myself. I'm not surprised by your assessment of the flavor, as I've always enjoyed it immensely. As I did this video. Thank you!
I just mixed up a half ration myself. I used mostly honey, with some brown sugar and a splash of Maple Syrup for color. It's fantastic stuff.😊
All of those Sam Slick drinks are, as far as I can tell, real. I'll dig into it a little bit more. Some of them might be very local names for drinks that were more broadly known, but they're close enough to ring a bell as it is.
Have we finally found a way to work together? 😃
I'd watch the hell out of that
This crossover would get my like
@@TastingHistory MAKE IT HAPPEN
I'd absolutely love to see a collab like that. Maybe have greg make each of the drinks, then max doing snippets of history on the cocktail in the slow mo shots haha
I'm surprised sorghum wasn't mentioned as a sweetener. Great Grandma used that as sweetener in her Haymakers punch. All her older (generational) recipes were molasses, sorghum, and honey as sweetener. She used to make it for me and friends when we showed up at her place after bicycling all day. "We were drinking water like field hands" in her vernacular.
I think thats do to it mostly being used for animal feed in the US.
Wrong part of the country for sorghum, that was mostly grown in the south like in Kentucky.
That would be a great episode to cover the use of sorghum syrup
My grandparents in Georgia always had a can of sorghum syrup on the table. They ate it on cornbread and biscuits or drizzled over vegetables. A lard biscuit with ham and sorghum is a terrific breakfast.
Sorghum is used as the main ingredient in some traditional Chinese confectionery
I love not only the recipes but the history and your sense of humor.
Thank you 😊
I like the posh accents
Agreed!
Here's a fun fact about birch sap: it contains Xylitol, a natural sweetener that has some anti-caries properties and because of this, it is used here in Finland to make xylitol chewing gum. Birch sap has also been used here historically as an emergency beverage and an ingredient in a type of mead called mahlasima (sap mead).
I love the idea of an emergency mead or emergency beverage. QUICK, A HORN OF MEAD WILL SAVE HIS LIFE!
But its highlly toxic to animals, especially dogs, so please be carefull.
@@0rderofTheWhiteLotus different kind of emergency. :p without clean water around, the birch sap water is already filtered by the tree and in spring when the leaves are budding it's plentiful & easy to get.
Yes, I'm from Sweden and I'm so used to xylitol I thought it was used everywhere, but I moved abroad and there's no xylitol. Weirdos! 😂
Xylitol is also deadly to dogs!
Grew up on this stuff. Knew it as haymakers punch, sour punch, or just switchel. Slightly different recipe but they do vary. Apple cider vinegar was always raw unfiltered with the mother. We used chunked giner root boiled down in water, and the giner chunks were removed and used for giner chew candy later. Lemon juice, cinnamon, nutmeg, your choise of sweetener, molases, honey, or maple syrup. When i was a kid my grandfather would keep 2 quarts in mason jars in the stream so we had it ice cold after haying, picking syrawberries, or tending the garden. As an adult I enjoy it on hot days after yard work with ice and a little bourbon.
Hey Seth, Any chance you could write the actual recipe down? This sounds amazing and I would like to keep it on hand for the kids this summer as well as myself with some Bourbon handy!
This sounds amazing, would love to try your grandparent’s recipe for after haying this summer! We still do it the old school way
@nikkireigns @RickReardon -3 cups pealed and chopped ginger (roughly 1/2" chunks) about a half pound if you are buying fresh ginger.
-18 cups water
-2 cups lemon juice
-1 1/2 cup apple cider with the mother
Spiced: (your choice here) I use 1 Tbs of cinnamon and a tsp of turmeric.
Bring all ingredients to a rolling boil in a large pot, covered. Once boiling, reduce to a low boil for 10 minutes. Let sit to cool for 30 minutes. Remove ginger chunks (a slotted spoon works pretty well.) Add your choice of sweatener until its as sweet as you like (maple syrup or molases are probably the best, I use Stevia as im diabetic and not a lot because i like mine on the tart side.) Refrigerate.
@@sethm7595 Thanks much!
You can make syrup from birch just like making maple syrup it's exactly the same process. I used to make my own maple syrup and the ratio is something like 30 gallons of maple sap for one gallon of maple syrup, but for birch trees it's something like 40-50 gallons of birch sap for one gallon of syrup, so not many people do it. Hope this was helpful Max! -Another Miller
For birch it's 100 gallon of sap to 1 gallon of syrup. And it's far, far more expensive. In Europe it's € 300,00 to € 390,00 per liter (sorry don't know it in gallons), which basically turns it into pure gold.
The water from pretty much any hardwood tree can be used to make syrup, I believe, as long as it's collected at the right time. Maple became the most common for a few reasons: sugar maple trees produce a huge amount of "water" at the end of winter / beginning of spring, allowing for more syrup to be produced from the sugar maple trees, the water has a higher concentration of sugar making it possible to get more syrup out of a gallon of sugar maple water than other trees, and the flavor is generally considered the best.
That's really interesting! I didn't realize it took so much sap to make syrups!
That's why they use ''sugar maple'' sap ( Acer saccharum )= higher sugar level.
And don't boil it down (either birch or maple sap) in your kitchen, or your entire kitchen will end up with stuff deposited onto every surface. Boil it down outdoors. (If my childhood experience is any indication, be sure the jars you put it into are very clean, or you'll end up with it flavored like peanut butter.)
Someone else has probably already mentioned this, but the birch sap in your recipe is probably just like maple syrup, but from a birch tree. Maples produce a sap water just like your birch water, and then it is boiled down to a small, small portion of its original volume. If you were to boil all that, you'd get like a tablespoon of birch syrup. :)
Exactly!!! Boiling the maple sap down into maple syrup takes much time and removes quite a bit of water. It looks and sounds like you are making moonshine whiskey!
80 gallons of sap boiled down to 1 gallon. I make it. It takes about 10 large birch trees, over 3 weeks to get 80 gallons.
@@artsymamanana waaaay more of a pain in the ass than maple - which should be like 40-1 reduction, birch is literally double
@@libertymacmillan5051 Yes, I have done both maple and birch.
Although the video says the birch sap is boiled down to "about one half the natural quantity."
From the Little House on the Prairie books; Laura carried a jug of switchel out to Pa while he was working in the fields. Ma had made it, and the entire family drank it. Pa was the one that enjoyed it the most.
I was just thinking about this! I grew up on a hay farm and was obsessed with the little house books, so I tried to make it for my dad one year. I just didn't know that apple cider vinegar and red wine vinegar were different, or what ginger was, or how to measure anything. As I recall, he took a sniff, thanked me, and said he'd drink it later.
My wife found the recipe for ginger water in the little house cookbook...it was actually rather good
Yes! That's exactly what I thought of, Laura bringing the ginger-water out to the fields!
There was a second reference in the Little House books too; I think it's at the beginning of The Long Winter when Laura helps Pa with the haying. Carrie brings the water jug out to them and Ma had made some ginger water as a surprise for them.
I always wondered what ginger water actually was!! I tried making it as an 9-year-old, mixing ground ginger into water. Did not go down well!! 😂
In one of the Little House books, Laura takes a jug of this out to Pa when he's working in the field. She didn't call it switchel, though. If I remember correctly, they just called it "ginger water." She also mentions that same ability of it to not cause stomach cramps. It's been close to thirty years since I read those books, but that ginger water has always stuck in my memory.
Wasn't there another book where Laura helped out her pa for the first time and her ma made sweet water as a treat? Or are they the same thing and I'm remembering incorrectly 😂
My neighbor was an extra on that show.
His RV burned down on Christmas, I heard the propane tanks and shotgun shells going off.
@@WatchoutforsnakezAnd I'm not giving it back!
Those books had a ton of cool memories written in by the author with details often overlooked by the reader. There's a mention of ball lightning entering the house through the chimney and exiting out the front door in one of the books.
Yes you are correct it was in the book titled the long winter
I remember reading 'The Long Winter' by Laura Ingalls Wilder and she mentioned that her sister Carrie briught out switchel for her and her dad when they were haying.
My dad and grandfather, being of Mid-Hudson Valley Dutch background, were still making switchel in the summertime, along with homemade root beer (which you should definitely do an episode on).
Homemade root beer? YES, PLEASE!
Birch beer! Quite popular in the Amish areas of Ohio. Similar to root beer, just made with birch syrup.
Homemade rootbeer, is just delicious.
Definitely interested since my Dad's a fan of rootbeer.
This needs more replies to get Max's attention. I'd love to see a real root beer.
I think the 'cramps' being avoided by switchel was water cramps caused by drinking too much cold plain water too quickly, especially after heavy labour. You couldn't guzzle switchel down as quick as water, I imagine with the vinegar and ginger in it. I've had water cramps once. It's ungodly painful, I thought I was having a heart attack at age 22.
you are correct.
Vinegar has a lot of electrolyte precursor nutrients (magnesium, phosphorous, etc) and one cause of muscle cramps is lack of electrolytes.
From the description in the video, I didn't get the impression people moderated their intake. Everyone seemed to gobble it down in copious amounts. I have to wonder if some made theirs stronger for their farmhands for exactly for the reason you described because they'd go too hard and get cramps.
@@Kowzorzvinegar does not have electrolytes in it. Vinegar triggers a spot in the back of the throat which decreases activity in the alpha motor neurons in your brain. As these neurons stop firing as frequently, the contractions in your muscles relax, and the cramps will stop.
Edit: for citation.
Miller, K.C., Mack, G.W., Knight, K.L., Hopkins, J.T., Draper, D.O., Fields, P.J., & Hunter, I. (2010b). Reflex inhibition of electrically induced muscle cramps in hypohydrated humans. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise. 42(5). doi: 10.1249/MSS.0b013e3181c0647e
@@sevenandthelittlestmewThis is a good comment. But also ginger is well known for relieving cramps. I take it plain for stomach aches and nausea and its pretty effective. I always have ginger at home. Im kind of surprised that not everyone is acquainted with it as a home remedy. Its pretty good.
Studies on it have related to treating the nausea in chemotherapy(with pretty good results). One of the reasons it lowers inflammation is that it suppresses the production of Prostaglandins. Which stimulates inflammation. Prostaglandins has a purpose but its one of those functions the body has that has unnecessary drawbacks. Kind of like a design error. So inhibiting them is good in most cases.
@@sevenandthelittlestmew Pure vinegar is an electrolyte, electrically -- It will conduct electricity. However, no one historically is drinking pure vinegar -- that is a modern invention. Vinegar, including apple cider vinegar like used in the video, has lots of nutrients in it, including the nutrients your body needs for creating the electrolytic compounds it needs for all its various uses.
I don't have to be wrong for you to be right. Both things can be true, yet you open with a patently false claim "vinegar does not have electrolytes". What is your goal here?
Hi, Max, retired Science teacher here. I've always had, and still have, a strong interest in History, in particular the technology, foods, clothing, etc. of everyday life in past times. I found your channel about a year ago, and I greatly enjoy your recipes and your presentation style. Thank you for your work in researching and presenting these foods and beverages. 👍
This actually works on a nutritional and structural level. Ginger is high in potassium and molasses is high in calcium, both of which are really important electrolytes when you've been working and sweating. The sugar elements make it more of an energy drink. And the vinegar makes it sour, which makes things feel more refreshing by promoting salivation. Basically, if they had added some ordinary salt, too, they'd have made a balanced electrolyte drink!
Ginger is also well known to treat nausea. Its even used to treat chemotherapy patients.
Electrolytes...
In the future, this will be sold as Brawndo 😉
birch sap - in Polish called "oskoła" (~ osc-owa) is a traditional drink that used to be popular in central and eastern europe. it makes you pee more and the sugars in it do not cause the insulin spike so if you are diabetic and suddenly run out of pretty much anything else to drink but you found yourself in a birch wood you can suck on one of the branches, LOL
i'm not a patron, but maybe you could do a drink called KVASS (kwas chlebowy, lit. bread acid, in Polish) - a traditional drink mostly drank in the eastern europe? it's easy to make and it wont cost you that much. also, if you ever visit baltic states make sure you get some of that in the pub.
Kvass episode when?!
Life Of Boris got me interested in Kvass.. i am now addicted!
yes, kvass is a delicacy from my childhood! cold kvass on summer day, delicious. sometimes I still buy it, but my husband hates the smell of it 😂
He actually did make a type of Kvass from beets for his episode on Ukrainian borshch. th-cam.com/video/4DPu-Ve_luU/w-d-xo.html
He did mention the drink Kvass made from fermented bread when talking about the ingredients for the borshch.
@@varedna I know but the one he did had little to do with the one I'm talking about
Love this! In Japan, we have some bath houses that have chilled vinegar drink dispensers, it's so refreshing after a hot bath! My favorite flavors are black vinegar, apple vinegar, and blueberry vinegar, and you can also buy juice boxes of them in the supermarket and the pre-mixed vinegar concentrate to dilute at home.
Hi, Vermonter here. In order to make birch syrup you need to boil down 100 galleons to make 1 galleon of good syrup because the sugar content is so low. Maple syrup has a higher sugar content so it has a ratio of 20:1, while maple sap is slightly sweet on its own, you probably would have had a similar reaction to the one you had for Birch Sap. Anyway, if you have a P.O box we could send you some actual birch syrup.
I was going to say that Birch Sap is twice to three times as diluted as maple.
It was also used in 17th Century Russia to make an alcoholic drink, but it has to be boiled down to an appropriate specific gravity (around 1.05) to make a good alcohol. I don't know what else they added, but modern recipes seem to use the sap chiefly as a hydration source, and they now traditionally use linden honey for the primary sugar and add raisins to get the yeast (native wine yeasts are on the surface of raisins).
From all accounts Us Yankees used to make Spruce Beer with Birch or Maple with fresh spruce tips for a bittering agent. But the energy investment in birch sap is much higher than maple, cause its more dilute, so it is not common.
Yes. Please send him some. I would love to see what he can do with it. Thanks in advance. 👍
do you sell your birch syrup online?
What is a galleon
If you use Barbados style baking molasses, you will get sweetness without the bitter. I experimented with the Townsends recipe and eventually came across that molasses. That works really well with it
You are right, in the 18th and 19th century all molasses was sweet or Barbados molasses. There was no Blackstrap molasses.
Today you can find Fancy molasses (sweet) or Cooking molasses (less sweet) at the supermarket in the baking section.
Max, never underestimate the power (or flavor) of apple cider vinegar. If you doubt, you should check out Laura Ingalls Wilder's Green Pumpkin Pie, which her mother made - see her book The Long Winter. An early freeze had killed their pumpkin vines before the pumpkins could ripen, so her frugal mother made tastiness of necessity.
A recipe for it is included in The Little House Cookbook by Barbara M Walker. I've made it myself, and when done well it's a delicious "apple" pie - with the apple flavor coming from the vinegar. The first hurdle to making it is getting a green pumpkin, that is, an unripe one. I had to grow my own , and in making mine I found it works best to slice it very thin and parboil it before putting it in the pie.
Another great video!
I remember this so well in the book! In the same book, Ma makes a jug of ginger water for Pa and Laura to drink while they are making hay. She lists water, sugar, ginger, and vinegar as the ingredients.
Yep.@@VaveeDances
I remember reading that. Pa was so surprised when he tasted the pie, and wondered where she'd been able to get apples in the middle of winter!
@@VaveeDances OMG I just wrote the same comment about the ginger water, but I don't remember the exact description (its been quite a while). Glad to read confirmation about the recipe.
Flavor, sure, but the purported medicinal qualities are based more in marketing than in reality.
My wife taught me about switchel and it’s a great drink after yard work. I’ve added salt for more electrolytes and cinnamon because it tastes good. I may need to make some with the mountain of mint I have growing. Thanks for spreading the gospel of switchel.
We would always chuck a few stalks of mint into lemonade in peak summer heat for a refreshing beverage as well. Either muddle leaves or just add a few whole stalks to a pitcher of lemonade for an easy twist in summer. Also works very well with a spicy/sweet basil in conjunction with minty or regular lemonade.
I’ve made essentially a virgin mojito with the same idea. Lime juice instead of vinegar.
My Dad (born in 1927) worked in the hay fields in Hanover south of Boston as a teenager and spoke of switchel being one of the perks of the job. He also loved shrubs and I still make them every summer. Great videos!
There have been some analysis on "haymaker's switchel" which btw is similar to Roman Posca, and the addition of molasses as the sweetener adds electrolytes, and couple that with it being chilled in a spring or stream to lower one's core temperature, and you have a very effective "sports drink" during or after a long hot day's work. Great Video!
This guy is living the life. He had an interest, he started sharing his love for it, and now he can earn a living from it. I'm both happy for him, and envious XD
I think part of it was getting laid off from work because of the virus, so there was some stress involved.
He totally earned his success. I always look forward to his videos 💕
this guy has every history nerds dream job
@@erad67 - As I understand it from earlier episodes, Mr Miller was a Disney performer - played a Prince at some point - and with the pandemic, Disney went into a hiatus. Nobody was laid off. When the hiatus was over and they were called back, "Tasting History" had already taken off, so he stuck with it. I am not sure if the performers were kept on the payroll or not. Ask him!
@@MossyMozart OK, that sounds more accurate than what I said. I know he was offered his old job back later, but I forget what exactly his job was. Anyways, my point was he went through a rough patch before doing so well.
Holy cow! I grew up in Northern Illinois, the product of a pure German mother (and maternal family of course) and she made this when I was a kid working in the garden (I did have cousins that lived on a farm, but I was basically a suburbanite). We did indeed call it "harvest drink". I asked her for the recipe years ago and then lost it, and she's since passed. Thank you for this!
Hello from Northern Illinois and descendants of German farmers from Iowa. 🙋🏻♀️
@@joyful_tanya Howdy from Central Texas. I've lived in Texas now for 37 years, and plenty of Germans and Czechs here too, thanks to the Mexican government that invited them to settle in the early 1800's. It's almost like home, except HOTTER, lol... more harvest drink please.
@@keithbrown9198 lol! Yes I have heard it's HOT! Definitely drink more switzle. ❤️🙋🏻♀️ Have a safe harvest. I have heard some parts need rain badly.
@@joyful_tanya Indeed. No rain here for at least 3 months so far... possibly some change coming the end of next week. Y'all take care up there, ya hear? 🤠
@@keithbrown9198 you do the same sir.
In the 1980s I spent several summers working on a relative's farm in Austria. One of the primary beverages they had was "most", hard pear cider that was made on the farm. On days we were bringing in hay, in the morning we would prepare several jugs of "most" with added water and vinegar, to drink throughout the day. This video brought back some good memories!
what no recipe
Wow I wish they sold that
While watching this video, I realized I had the ingredients to make this switchel. A pleasant beverage that is a nice alternative for drinking apple cider vinegar. The ginger powder resulted in a beverage that seems to have a warming effect in my body. This might be a nice warm drink to have in the winter. I grew up enjoying molasses Joe Frogger cookies that were popular in the 19th century. So this beverage has a nostalgic taste to me.
You can harvest your own birch sap (we call it something like "birch juice" in Scandinavia) directly from birch trees, similar to how you would harvest the base liquid for making maple syrup. It is indeed pretty thin and watery, but it's supposed to contain a lot of vitamin C and other good stuff.
We have loads and loads of birch trees here in Scandinavia, but birch syrup is not particularly common.
As it takes a lot more reducing to make a syrup compared to Canadians have with their mapels and maple syrup.
I believe the ratios is like a hundred to one or something. 100 liters of sap to make a liter of syrup. I don’t remember the number but being suprised by how big it was, and that it was a much larger then for maple syrup.
Like I’ve heard of people collecting birch sap, and I’ve tasted it. But it’s not commonly used in most regions. Maybe it’s specialty in some county or region in some Scandinavian country that have made it their thing. Entirely possible. But I’m not aware of it.
@@IQzminus2 That's because it's incredibly expemsive. Between € 300,00 to € 390,00 per liter depending on quality. It completely dwarfs maple syrup!
What's weird about this channel is the videos were ALWAYS this high quality. I remember when this channel had like 3000 subs, and it was already polished and well made and researched. Most channels ramp up the quality as people gain interest. Max and them just made it 2M good, then it just filled in. I can't think of another channel that's like that.
IF, you're a Car Guy at all, theres a (huge channel) small shop of friends in Idaho called Grind Hard Plumbing Co....same thing, a small group of friends with a penchant for amazing videography, intense Car Guy attitude, and amazing content.
There’s another food history channel or just history channel called “Townsends” or what used to be, I think is “Jas(James) Townsend and sons.” They used to focus more on 18th century cooking but have since branched out into 18th century culture altogether. A little more narrow in subject as it’s only 18th century but the research is good.
And they reaally live 18th century, I describe them as “larping but 18th century” the sets, the dress, the tools, everything is 18th century lol. I’m assuming that you don’t know the channel ofc
@@karu6111 yeah that guy has been a meme for a while lol. His orange fool video was talked about a lot because everyone thought it was alluding to Trump, and there were a couple other very popular uploads like the fried chicken recipe. A+ channel.
@@frydemwingz what video? I haven’t watched them in a while lol
@@frydemwingz oh that was 6 years ago, i guess i missed it lol
9:29 Townsend should have a picture of you pop up, everytime he says hardtack. 😅
This sounds amazing, so I will definitely try it.
As far as birch sap, you are correct that it tastes like water. However, if you boil it down, like you would maple syrup (except maple is 40:1 to 60:1 and birch is 100:1 or 120:1) you will create birch syrup. Now the flavour of birch syrup is more savory than maple syrup, but it does have some sweetness to it. I usually use birch syrup in marinades for game (venison, moose or bear) and it works really well to add flavour and not take away from the flavor of the meat.
As a former professional mixologist and current sober housedad, I love learning about these eclectic beverages both alcoholic and otherwise! I will try this intriguing mixture for sure
Im a mixologist looking to get into a more sober lifestyle. It's fun, but its time to move on
@@yseson_ Yeah, I lived the restaurant/bar night life for 16 years and was very good at my craft but it was killing me, literally and figuratively. Nowadays I just prepare balanced meals for my family and enjoy nature, video games and mock tails! My current favorite is peach flavored soda water, OJ and a splash of grapefruit juice
@@roberthiltz2741 sounds desirable
Please share some more sober drinks! I was an alcoholic for years and now can’t even metabolize alcohol properly (due to perimenopause) so I can’t even have it in moderation anymore. I get so tired of water.
Flavored soda waters are my best friends; cheap, no sugar and add effervescence to any beverage. I have seen sodas with blackberry lemonade, currant and even ginger on the shelves of my local supermarket. Another good addition is Gatorade as just a splash can add some color and a bit of heavier liquid to cut very thin combos. For the summer you can try raspberry lemonade/sweet tea and the cold months I like ginger soda with a splash of vanilla and cider 😊
You should try making birch beer! It's a New England specialty. It's very similar to root beer.
Or birch tea!
I made this! It's pretty good. Very acidic, reminiscent of lemonade but not nearly as sweet and a little apple-spice-y instead of lemon-y. If you like lemonade, you'll probably like this. I'm making a full batch for my guests this weekend, it's tasty and it'll be a fun talking point!
This is it! When i was little, i had the Little House on the Prairie cookbook and my bro (bless him) helped me make a batch of "molasses water" from it. It was served warm or cold. Bro about died gagging, but i loved it. Thank you for your hard work, Max, you really are incredible with your research! 💖🙏🕊
Yeah I was thinking of the part in one of the books where Ma makes ginger water for Pa and Laura working in the field. Must've been similar. Sounds like fun!
Yes! I knew I wouldn't be the only one that remembered Ma sending Carrie out to Pa & Laura with a jug while the were making hay. I believe it's in The Long Winter opening chapter "Make Hay While the Sun Shines," but I don't have my books handy to look. I remember the mention in the book that Ma had "added plenty of ginger to warm their stomachs," so they could chug without getting sick. I always wondered if it tasted similar to ginger ale?
Oh, geez, it's been forever since I read the "Little House" books, but now that you bring it up, the drink sounds familiar. I'm 45, but may have to wander into the kids' section of the local library to see if they have them. 😅
I've been making switchel for a couple of years, and this summer, I made some for my dad, ( a farmer) who's been working outside in the hot sun, and he said it's the best thing he's ever drunk. Makes him feel very refreshed and quenches his thirst marvelously! He doesn't drink anything else when he's working outside anymore. Great way to help keep heat exhaustion at bay, too.
Made the Switchel yesterday and chilled it overnight. Just had some this morning and it is delightful. I can taste the molasses, the apple and the ginger, but not the vinegar. It is refreshing, a touch smoky and just a hint of bitter. Not a harsh bitter - a molasses bitter.
I like it a lot and it will become a hot weather staple in my fridge.
Thank you Max, for telling us about this drink.
In the 1960's I used to work the hay fields of my uncle's farm in upstate New York. We always had a big jug of switchel to quench our thirst and it was always very enjoyable! Great childhood memories.
So great you never made it yourself eh? If you did drink it still,it would have been indicated in your statement.. Must be so great memories because even at 40, no one from the 1960s or before has made this and its the first time I heard of it. Like a bunch of hipsters are like oh yea it was so good it was the best, but then you ask when they last had it...1960s...1970s, that says it was far from good
@@jamesmeppler6375: You are a clueless idiot. Switchel was a relatively common summertime thirst-quencher in the hayfields of Upstate NY in the Sixties, and early Seventies even. The recipes used by young farm wives then were passed down from older folk born in the 19th century.
I actually make this all the time! Especially if I’m going to be drinking or be outside for a while. It’s revived many friends. And it helps with a hangover
I'm from Germany, a few years back I found a recope for Switchel in a magazine (which made it sound as if Switchel was super popular in rhe southern states of USA) it used fresh gingerbwhich zou cooked in tthe water (and I used maple and honez to sweeten).
I loved it. Thanks for reminding me. Will make some ASAP 😊
Just tried this. Used cinnamon instead of ginger, and I only had blackstrap molasses so I used a little bit of it, a lot of honey, and some maple syrup. It was delicious and very refreshing. Thank you for sharing this with everyone!
You tried that,not THIS!
What’s your recipe???
@@drachenfeuer5042 I just shortened what he did here down a bit. I had some quart jars laying around, so I used that.
Blackstrap sucks, so I retried the recipe without it and its much better:
1 quart of water
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup maple syrup
1/4 cup honey
about half a tablespoon of ground cinnamon
and then I added some redmond salt just for a bit of flavor, but that's optional
I did one with and one without rum. The one with rum was just a shot of bacardi white rum, since that's what I had on hand. When you have everything in the jar, just shake it really good until the honey mixes in and then it's ready to drink.
Highly recommend it, kept me hydrated working outside today. Definitely going to be a staple in this household from now on.
Both sound tasty. Thanks for sharing your recipe too. 😊
Ginger is the main energizing ingredient in this farmer's Gatorade but cinnamon may also work somewhat. Molasses and honey are both sweeteners but they also enhance the absorption of the ginger. I know much less about the nutritional properties of acv because I puke every time I drink it. I can't handle it no matter how much I dilute it in water. The syrup adds more body to the beverage and the ginger also helps alleviate nausea, but I'm still afraid to drink this.
Fascinating video! Definitely going to make this. The thirst quencher my mother used to make in the 60’s and 70’s was equal parts apple cider vinegar and honey into a contrite stored in the fridge. When a new jug of beverage was needed, a half inch was poured into a pitcher and water added to the top. So delicious! Absolutely the best thirst quencher. We had it at every meal as well to “aid digestion.”
Amazing video as always! Here's another fun drinking history idea: The King's Ginger, the drink specifically formulated for King Edward VII for when he was driving his automobile. Yes, you heard me right, an alcoholic drink made specifically for when King Edward VII wanted to drive.
I had to go look that up right away, and and can only think it's really good that so few people were driving back then. You don't want to share a road with a king who's like "Hand me my driving liquor"
Damn. Thatd be a trip lmao
Hmm, I think it’s possible the late Duke of Edinburgh was still upholding this tradition.
@@skyllalafeyDriving is terrifying! How could you expect anyone to get their nerve up to do it without a stiff one? ;)
My dad grew up on the Canadian east coast during the '40s. They drank a version of this made with maple syrup instead of molasses and cinnamon instead of ginger. He loved it and bemoaned the fact that my mom didn't and so never made it for him.
I remember having it once when visiting my grandparents but my grandma was on a health kick at the time and didn't put any sweetener in it... None at all! 6 year old me thought it was disgusting! And judging from my dad's expression he agreed! 😂
I'll definitely try it again now, with maple syrup,
The fact that you upload such interesting and well-researched content so often truly blows my mind. Thanks Max ❤❤❤
Me* too*!*!*!* 🥳🎇🎆✨🍾🥂🪄😇💝🌠🍿So fun* to watch*!*
I went ahead and made some switches this morning as I watched Max’s wonderful video. Reminds me of vinegar/honey water that my dad drank every morning. The satchel is sooo sweet that I diluted it about 1:3 with water. (No rum.) it is very good. I used golden syrup for sweetener.
@@americaneclecticI wonder if treacle would work too
You might also try something called sekanjabin. It is another vinegar drink but concentrated as a shelf stable syrup that can be diluted later over ice. Several flavor variations available for this drink including mint and nice to keep around for a quick refreshment in the summer.
Birch beer and birch syrup (made from birch sap) were the kinds of things that were common around our house or at my aunt's house. She usually had a case or two of birch beer on the shelf & we boys were expected to tap the trees each spring to get sap for both the maple syrup and birch syrup. Anyway, both were popular ways to sweeten and flavor things before sugar was really easy to get. As a side note, up until the 20th century, sugar in the US had to come from those areas that could grow sugar cane. Growing beets for sugar has made sugar much easier for us to manufacture and the methods we use to grow them has gotten much better and more productive over the past 100 years.
Orange County, CA used to grow and refine beet sugar when I was a little girl in the 1970s. I was miles away from the refinery but when the wind came from that direction, it STANK. The building looked like a workhouse from Dickens and was replaced by a huge pink hotel by the 1980s. All this land is now developed. (Just like the butter bean fields around South Coast Plaza and the strawberries north of Disneyland.)
@@splendidcolors, I actually lived in Tustin & the Lake Forest areas in the early 2000's. Even then there were still citrus groves & strawberry fields south of Tustin & all around El Toro. They made the decision to convert El Toro to the park when I was there. Now it's all built up.
Anyway, Michigan Sugar is a big employer in the area of Michigan where I grew up. I'm very familiar with that nasty smell that comes from the sugar plant. I never knew they grew beets in Orange County, though. I'll bet that used a lot of water. Where was that factory before it got replaced?
omg, i love birch beer. ty to my Grampa! :D
You reactions in this are absolutely hilarious and entertaining. That look of shock and "why did this go out of fashion" are priceless
Ok its 10 mins later, ive just made this and its delicious tasted almost exactpy like this brand of apple and ginger juice you used to be able to buy from Tesco and Dunnes called Crawston Press. It should be even nicer if you steeped it in real ginger or used frozen crystalised ginger in place of ice cubes when serving it
I grew up in Massachusetts and my Grandma would make it in the dog days of August. We called it ginger water. She swore that you could chug it down when you were really thirsty and the ginger would keep you from feeling nauseous from drinking too quickly ❤
As a native New Englander, and an avid switchel enthusiast i heartily approve of this video!
I was already drinking a big cup r of switchel when i found this video.
i make it by the pitcherful every summer, or whenever i want something sweet and want it to be better for me than soda etc
Other than water and coffee, it is the beverage i drink the most of
Interesting as always. When I was a young boy (at the moment I’m 72) I somehow came across a recipe for something called “Fake Apple Cider” which was basically vinegar and sugar with possibly some cinnamon) - a curious child. I decided to make some. It really did taste like apple cider. The recipe was presented as a sort of magic trick rather than a serious potable, so it appears to have been a tail end artifact of switchel.
Townsends fans know.
I'm glad i wasn't the only one whose thought was wait, didn't i see that on townsends channel too
I thought I was having a deja vu moment. Thanks for reminding me of Townsend's coverage.
That's a niche comment
Ngl I thought this was a Townsends video and thought ”huh, I thought they already did that, I’ll watch it later” and then the Discord alert came through 😅
@nothingbutchappy nich!? No way! I think you underestimate ex big Townsends actually is!
I had the same reaction when I made my first batch of switchel! Eventually discovered that it is really quite refreshing to slam a glass of cold switchel after a long bike ride or run or mowing the lawn. Something about it really does make it quite refreshing.
I love my switchel! I started drinking it during workouts instead of Gatorade because I can control the amount of sugar. You can cold steep all sorts of herbal teas in it as well to switch up the flavour.
I live in upstate New York and my grandfather used to make birch syrup. He would add the birch berries and wild blackberries, we never had the sap water so I don’t know if it was supposed to taste like that but the syrup was always excellent
That sounds delicious.
I've been waiting for Max to do swichel since he started up drinking history. You can actually take out about half the water a little bit of a sweetener and replace that with juice to give it a fruit flavor. I recommend cherry
Love this idea
Use pin cherry juice if you can find them! It's like sour cherry then!
I wanted to try switchel as it was, but this just sounds amazing.
Stop ruining things with sweeteners. This is a healthy tonic it’s supposed to be a sports drink, not a chemical drink
@handsoffmycactus2958 sugar, honey, and molasses are sweeteners. Gatorade was based on switchel, it needs a real source of sweetness and calories.
Max saying "this is delightful" made my day and I don't even know why. Btw I know birch water as a hair care/ skin care product against dandruff, you get it in every drug store in Germany and I often use it
Great episode! Max, I believe you got mixed up about birch water vs. birch syrup. Birch water is a beverage made with a tiny bit of the syrup. Supposed to be invigorating, much like switchel. The actual birch syrup straight from the tree that it is made from is harder to acquire, but you can still get it online. It would be much sweeter than what you have here, although I believe it is still not quite as sweet as maple syrup. It is also made into soda: "birch beer" is an analog to "ginger ale." I used to work in a store that carried birch water and birch beer. The soda is pretty good!
Which birch beer? Clear or caramel?
Thank you! I'd all but forgotten switchel!
I first heard of it from a living historian working a "frontier" garden in Kentucky. He recommended trying it with bourbon, of course.
I only recall two things about the drink- I used organic raw vinegar and at the end of a long work day a swallow of it was like a kick in the butt! I went from trembling with exhaustion to ready to till another couple hundred feet of garden row!
I'm more easily exhausted these days and working a much smaller garden. Next trip to the market I'll be buying some good vinegar and fresh ginger.
I’d go out on a limb, and say that the concoction by itself would start to naturally ferment as long as nothing had been pasteurized. First press golden or baking molasses would have enough sugar in it to start the process. So some people getting a little tipsy on it if it sat long enough is definitely a possibility. It’s funny that you just posted this over a week ago. I just purchased a bunch of molasses to make some.
This is my thought.
That’s what I wondered too, rather like ginger beer, but there’s very little sugar in this recipe so it couldn’t be very strong at all.
@@Canalcoholic molasses is what is used to ferment to make into rum. Have to wonder what a cup of molasses or maple syrup would do to a gallon of non chilled Switchel.
My uncle had a apple orchard and would make apple cider. Had gallons of it lining the wall. It would all naturally ferment. Like apple soda with a low little kick.
@@jasonfoley4677 I do know how rum is made, and probably most other alcoholic drinks on this planet. A cup of molasses added to a gallon of water, whether an American gallon (approx. 3.8 litres) or a British gallon (approx. 4.5 litres) could yield less than 1% alcohol by volume.
@@Canalcoholic Yup, I'd imagine you'd need about 3 lbs (a little under 6 cups?) of molasses per gallon to get anything worth getting drunk off of.
I've been working on cocktail recipes on the basis of switchel since I made an approximation of it as a sorely needed energy drink before a long run.
My off the cuff recipe included honey, cider vinegar, salt, ginger, and rosewater and was surprisingly complex and delicious.
Morton salt substitute is made of potassium - in case you were interested.
@@goatkidmom It is bitter and repellent as well..
I grew up on a farm in western Massachusetts in the '70s, and during haying season--late June to July, Grandma and Grandpa made it for us. I don't know how it was spelled, but I heard it as "switzel". The recipe @01:22 looks about right, but since we made our own maple syrup, they used that instead of molasses.
Switchel needs more love, glad to see more people talking about it this year. ALSO your shrub recipe was great
I remember reading about Ma Ingalls making this recipe for Laura and Pa during harvesting in The Long Winter book. I had no idea about its history. I always wanted to try it> So exciting to see it brought to life! Thank You !
I'm quite surprised Max didn't mention this in his video. The Ginger Water episode in The Long Winter is well known by everyone who read those books.
Besides a spring or well to cool your jug of drink, you could also wrap it in burlap that was soaked in water. The evaporation of the water from the burlap wrap would cool the jug and its contents if you weren't close to a cold brook, spring or well. And, I think that trying to find recipes for those "other" drinks from the Sam Slick character would be a great episode. Maybe even make some of the recipes if you can find them... As an example, a hail stormginsling-talabogus may just be a gin sling made with hailstones and a substitution for bitters. I did find that in the early 1800s there was a drink called the "purl talabogus" that was made by mixing rum (or other liquors) with spruce beer and molasses. Also, a "phlegm-cutter" was a double portion of a cocktail taken before breakfast, and a "gum tickler" was a gill (4 US fluid ounces) of a strong spirit, like rum, taken after fasting. So, I think that you really are on to something fun!
This is the first time since I left the farm that I heard the phrase " making hay". Milking was also known as "making milk"... Brings back a host of memories, thank you..
I remember reading about this in the Little House on the Prairie series! Laura and Pa are harvesting hay and Ma sends Carrie out with a jug of ginger water with vinegar. They said that Ma would add ginger so it wouldn’t turn their stomachs if they drank a lot after working hard in the heat.
That sounds kind of like what my grandparents said. They claimed that the vinegar would prevent you from throwing up due to drinking something cold when you're real hot.
I remember that too! And wondered what it was exactly.
😂 i just commented about that too I read the books also
I was thinking the same thing, I just loved those books.
I'm glad I'm not the only one! I have no idea why but for whatever reason, that passage from the Little House books is the first thing I thought about when I was listening to this. I read those books *decades* ago and I remember that bit like it was yesterday, lol
I love switchel; I first read about it as a teenager in New England and decided to give it a try to see what they'd been drinking in my neck of the woods back when it was mostly farmland. I was also surprised by how the vinegar taste sort of melted away in the face of the rest of the drink.
You can use that birch sap to make birch beer; which is another one of those old North American drinks in the same vein as root beer or sarsaparilla. It's most popular in the northeastern corner of the continent where the plants for the other two drinks aren't found or are less common.
I've had commercially-made birch beer. It didn't taste any different than root beer. Maybe the commercial version didn't capture the essence of the real thing.
My grandmother used to make home-made root beer every summer. Or maybe I should say, she tried to. She'd get it all mixed up and put into bottles. Then she said she had to leave the bottles out on the back porch overnight. Every time she did it, the bottles would explode in the middle of the night. I never got to try any of it! Yet she kept doing it year after year!
For once, I had everything on hand to make something, so I immediately went into my kitchen and made some switchel.
I only made a half-gallon to try it, but it tastes delicious as is, and now it's in the fridge to cool.
So thankful for such a nice refreshing drink!
Great Recipe Max,
Here's what I used for mine: Apple Cider Vinegar, Golden Syrup (as I'm in the UK), Nutmeg & Cinnamon and Spiced Rum.
I've got a cold stream on my dad's farm that will be used when it's time for hay baling!
Now I'm envisioning Max throwing a Tasting History party where he cooks various historical recipes and serves switchel and other historic drinks. Days of preparation! Then as the party goers enjoy the prepared food, Max tells them all about the history of each one and they discuss!
I would so go to that party lol
In one of the Little House books, Laura is helping PA get the hay harvested. At one point, Ma brings them something to drink, what the author calls ginger water. I wonder if she might have been referring to switchel or something like it. It is mentioned that it will keep the drinker from getting cramps.
Apple cider vinegar works well as a sweetener. The first time i heard someone put it in their hot tea, i thought they were crazy. It was surprisingly good and helps with soar throats. Imagine if we had stuck to healthy"ish" drinks instead of corn syrup and citric acid.
I add a little acv to my water oftentimes, and I haven’t had indigestion in probably 15 years now.
You are so very correct. I was never much of a soda pop drinker, and fruit juices on the market shelves is so terribly sweet.
@@bluegrassman3040How are your teeth?
@@phantomkate6 just fine.
@@phantomkate6diluted vinegar in water is way less acidic than soda and most fruit juices. You need less than a tablespoon per glass of water to make it (too much and it tastes like vinegar, you know you have it "just right" when it tastes refreshing and not vinegary)
They could also cool their drink, by having a cloth cover and wetting it to let it "sweat" or evaporate in the wind. Not cold mind you, but cooler than otherwise.
Oooo a drinking history episode, you’re *switcheling* it up!
I remember when you first made this channel, and you got big enough to do this as a full time job. It's so cool, the value in your videos is very high, you're obviously very dedicated to doing a good job. I appreciate your videos, keep doing a good job!
I've been working on a family cookbook to ensure recipes are getting handed down. Everyone in the family very clearly made sure that I better include the family switchel recipe in the book. I had never heard of it before, glad to see that it is a big thing.
Could you drop that recipe here in a reply or is a secret family recipe.
@@jacobvertiz1108 I agree.
When i make switchel i always add some form of fruit juice to it. A hint of lemon or even better the leftover apple juice/syrup from applesauce making, makes it amazing. Served iced on a hot day is by far the most refreshing drink out there. I would like to note that you should remember to drink plenty of water (or just lots of switchel) as well because switchel can trick your body into feeling more hydrated than it is. It's why i often make a glass or two in the mornings, the hot days don't bother me nearly as much as they should.
This video makes my New England pride very happy. Me born and raised in Western Massachusetts there’s still scary large amounts of farmland around here. Switchel is definitely different with everyone, if you have plenty of oak trees and what not around then you would definitely make it with maple syrup and of course if you have kids, you would have it be non-alcoholic unless you buy the alcoholic version from a friend. Best thing to do is make it with ginger during hot weather or with nutmeg if it’s cold weather. Believe me, I know the weird combinations of things that we eat in New England doesn’t make sense but it works.
New England Fall food is my fav
"... if you have plenty of oak trees ... around then you would definitely make it with maple syrup..."
You guys make maple syrup vastly differently than I expected.
As someone who moved to the region from Utah, New England may as well be a different country. That’s not an insult at all, btw! It’s a good place with decent people. You guys definitely do things differently, though, and your food is no exception!
@@stevenschnepp576 as a Canadian, I'm starting to see why we have import restrictions on American maple syrup.
Thanks for the wonderful switchel episode. My grandmother (who lived for a time on a farm in Vermont along the New York border) gave us a very similar recipe (without the ginger--or rum) based on Vermont folk medicine. She referenced "Folk Medicine" by Dr. D.C. Jarvis, who combined apple cider vinegar and honey, and provided a medical rationale for the drink.
the name died out before the practice did; drinks like this (locally omitting the ginger) were very common for the generation ahead of mine working on farms in southern ontario - that puts it as at least still in favor for its practical purpose into the 70s.
Modern iteration on it indeed probably omits much of the sugar, as we've become more aware of the issues we give ourselves by consuming too much.
I've tapped a birch this year, the taste is subtle but excellent. The sap extracted replaced my bottled water intake througout early spring. But yes, the sweetness is almost undetectable unless I boiled down quite a lot, as birch has 2x less sugar in its sap than maple.
This video caught my eye because in the late 70’s we drank switchel made by one of my good friends grandmother while we were haying in NY state. Way over in the SW corner of the state. So quite a ways from New England. She was native Indian and her husband was of European decent I suppose.
Anyhow, it really did quench your thirst and I remember honey and ginger in it. No Rum unfortunately but we were like 10. Of course she is long gone, but I’ll try to remember to ask him the next time I speak with him if he has the recipe she used. I have described this drink to my kids in the past years. They have no clue how good it was when you were about ready to pass out from heat exhaustion and hard work!
Great video btw.
Here on the east coast, we have a soda called birch beer that uses birch syrup. It comes in three varieties: clear, red, or brown, depending on which area you are in. It is similar to root beer, but definitely has its own unique flavor. Highly recommended.
Tell us more, Andrew. You mean these sodas are on a store shelf? What's the brand name? Or homemade? And I assume you mean the East coast of the U.S. ?
@@paulmaxwell8851 Yes, the east coast of the US. The sodas are pretty widely available here, depending on your region. From New England to the Mid Atlantic region, you can find it readily. The farther south you go, say down to Georgia or Florida, it becomes more of a specialty item and more difficult to find.
The two most popular brands where I live are Boylan's and Pennsylvania Dutch, which I believe is owned by Coca Cola now. They are both red birch beers, which are the most common here. Farther north, they prefer the clear or brown varieties.
You can make your own, though I have never done it. The process is very similar to making root beer. It is also a bit more expensive, as birch syrup (which is made from birch sap, much like maple syrup is made from maple sap) is pretty expensive. While you need approximately 40 gallons of maple sap to make a gallon of maple syrup, you need more like 110 gallons of birch sap to make just one gallon of birch syrup.
Hope all of this helps!
We make Switchel in the summer, but with Steen's pure cane syrup, and keep a jug in an antique fridge on the back porch (along with some Havana Club brown, for those who want to add it). It really cuts a thirst like no other. 👍
The recipe's implication that maple sap is only boiled down halfway to get syrup is not right at all. I know people who make maple syrup. From a quick Google, it's a 40 to 1 situation whereas Birch syrup takes 110 gallons to make 1 gallon of syrup. I think you were expecting a jar of syrup. 😅4:31
Man I love to your content lol. Everyone in my family watches your channel now. As a homeschooler, your videos have become a fun way to learn and doubles as a fun "experiment" after. Thank you for having clean content, too. Rare find these days. Anyhow, thank you!
Imagine writing down that recipe in 1856. You'd have *no* idea that in 160 years, someone would make it on a "video" and beam it across the world for millions to see and enjoy.
In 1856, a lot of people were still having trouble wrapping their heads around the concept of the telegraph.
This was the first of your videos I've seen. I have to say, I love the way you formatted this video. I really appreciate that I was seeing the recipe within the first five minutes! I'm sure you know how bad most recipe websites are with their life story before they learned how to make alfredo sauce. I really liked the pace of this video as well as all of the neat historical facts. Keep up the good work and I look forward to future and past videos! Liked and Subscribed!
Thank you!
I'll have you know that at least one person, a friend of mine, has already made and is enjoying this beverage as I'm watching this video. You're enriching lives, Max!