This Lemonade Recipe From 1944 Has A Unique Twist

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If you have a craving for lemonade, there are several ways to quickly whip up a pitcher of it in your kitchen. From powdered mixes to frozen concentrate tubes to Kool-Aid, you typically only need to add water to these mixes to make a batch of the summertime favorite. But, really, nothing beats homemade lemonade — the kind that uses freshly squeezed lemon juice and sugar. It takes patience and a little elbow grease, but it's incredibly refreshing and delicious. For the most part, once you're done squeezing the lemons, you toss the rinds away, but according to a recipe from a 1944 issue of "Women's Home Companion Cook Book," you're not making the best lemonade unless you're utilizing the lemon zest, too.

The lemonade recipe instructs to boil water, sugar and the zest of 2 lemons for about 7 minutes until the sugar is dissolved and a simple syrup is made. After it's cooled, combine it with a cup of fresh lemon juice and four cups of water. The author explains that, by incorporating lemon zest, you don't need to use as many lemons to get the desired fresh lemon flavor that people love in lemonade. Furthermore, boiling the zest extracts the maximum amount of oils and flavor from the rind.

When making this 1944 lemonade recipe, the lemon zest can be either grated – a microplane is an excellent tool for this — or the rind can be cut into strips. You can easily remove the yellow rind from lemons with a vegetable peeler, a tool that Ina Garten constantly replaces. If using grated lemon, it will remain in the lemonade and appear as very small pieces of yellow zest. If you'd rather the zest not be in the drink, opt for using strips of the rind and strain them from the sugar syrup once it's cooled. The syrup will still have absorbed the lemon oils and bright flavor.

This version of lemonade is similar to Turkish lemonade, which also incorporates the juice and zest from the lemons, and it sometimes uses other citrus fruits, as well. You can include the zest and juice from oranges or limes, and if you like your beverages bubbly, add some sparkling water. 

Incorporating lemon zest into your lemonade will give you an extra lemony boost without making it too sour or bitter, but you can still include other flavors as well, like muddled mint, pureed strawberries or raspberries, or even some green chilies for a spiced-up lemonade.