Sassafras Tea

Don't forget the Donn Grenda Program tonight Monday 14 7:00 History Center

In the westerns, people were always asking for a bottle of ‘sasparilla.’ Invoking images of "saloons and parched cowboys". What was that drink?  A little research showed it was popular in the United States in the 19^th century. And according to advertisements for patent medicines of the period, it was considered to be a remedy for skin and blood problems as well.  (It induces sweating, which some people thought was a good thing.) It tastes a little like root beer apparently and is made from the sarsaparilla vine.

 This not to be confused with sassafras tea made from the roots and bark of the sassafras tree native to North America. Depending on who you ask, it is either a folk remedy or a dangerous carcinogen that deserves Drug Enforcement Agency oversight. The commercial sale of Sassafras root tea is now outlawed.  With that disclaimer in place, I have attached a recipe for sassafras mead found in our local 1880 newspaper as well as “effervescing lemonade.”  If you are interested in recipes published at the time that your great grandmothers might have used, send me your email and I will send you a link to the ones we have collected.  Remember the wood stoves in use then had no temperature control so there are no temperature settings or times given in the recipes. “Good” cooks just knew when something was done.    lawrencelore@gmail.com