Stoughton's Elixir, an Early Example

Stoughton (or Stoughton’s) bitters are one of those classic cocktail ingredients, now defunct, over which a certain breed of cocktail enthusiast swoons. First concocted in the late 17th century by British apothecary Richard Stoughton, Stoughton’s “elixir” was hugely popular and spawned countless homemade imitations. Just as ersatz Kahlúa recipes now pepper American recipe collections, ersatz Stoughton’s receipts cropped up in household manuscripts throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries.

While looking for something else entirely last night, I came across an even earlier example: To make Stoughton’s Elixir from 1758. Eliza Smith’s’s book, The Compleat Housewife, was originally published in London in 1727, but was so popular that it went through many editions and reprintings in Britain and, later, America. As far as current research indicates, it was in 1742 the first cookbook published in what was to become the United States.

This makes Smith’s recipe for Stoughton’s the earliest published in America—assuming the recipe was in the 1742 edition. I looked and looked though the shelves at home and didn’t find one to confirm. All I got is this lousy 1758 reprint.

To make Stoughton’s Elixir. Pare off the rinds of six Seville oranges very thin, and put them in a quart bottle, with an ounce of gentian scraped and sliced, and six penny-worth of cochineal; put to it a pint of the best brandy; shake it together two or three times the first day, and then let it stand to settle two days, and clear it off into bottles for use; take a large tea spoonful in a glass of wine in a morning and at four in the afternoon; or you may take it in a dish of tea.

Eliza Smith (1758, 16th edition)
The Compleat Housewife - Or, Accomplished Gentlewoman's Companion