Re: What is grog? by SDStaff Una, she forgot the lime and brown sugar! Also, it is usually served hot now. (I don’t know if it ever was served hot originally. I’ve heard conflicting reports.)
Here is a typical recipe for it today, along with a little more history Una might have omitted.
As I said, I don’t know about the hot part. It is delicious when served hot though. I also came up with my own recipe a while ago. I don’t know if it is authentic. But I add two teaspoons of lemon juice and two teaspoons honey. It is excellent if you have a cold. The honey soothes the throat. And alcohol is a natural analgesic you know.
I tend to think it may have had lime juice to begin with. That is after all why we call British people limeys even to this day.
This is what Wiki has to say on the subject along with an expansion on the modern rum ration, ‘modern’ in this case meaning since 1850 (i.e. post Aubrey’s day). Note that
An additional note: the grog ration wasn’t just to keep the almost universally alcoholic sailors from going into DT’s, but was an important part of their daily food ration. Distilled liquor can keep almost indefinitely, and the average person can metabolize up to 1,000 food calories a day of alcohol, making rum one of the major ship-storable forms of food (beer was another). Drinking it with water minimized dehydration and slowed any intoxicating effects.
Grog is any of a variety of alcoholic beverages. The word originally referred to a drink made with water and rum, which British Vice Admiral Edward Vernon introduced into the naval squadron he commanded in the West Indies on 21 August 1740. Vernon wore a coat of grogram cloth and was nicknamed Old Grogram or Old Grog.
Originally, Admiral Vernon was the guy who started watering down the rum- they started calling the watered-down rum “grog” after the grogram (a sort of fabric) coat he habitually wore.
It seems that along the way, the regular anti-scorbutic dose of lime (or lemon; they called them by the same word) juice (whence the nickname “limeys”) was mixed into the grog.
Nowadays, it’s not a distinct thing- there are lots of drinks labeled “grog”- about the only common things they have in common are rum and citrus.
The German onomatopoeic expression for drinking (like for example in a comic) is “gluck gluck gluck”. “Glögg glögg glögg” works as well.
I remember my father’s secret weapon against a cold: a grog, what he called some rum with hot water and sugar. Sometimes he added a raw egg, don’t know what that was for and where he had it from.
The opera “Les Contes d’Hoffman” starts in a tavern with spirits of wine and beer singing “Glou! glou! glou! je suis le vin!
“Glou! glou! glou! je suis la bière!”
In the Italian translation, it’s “Glu! glu! glu! io sono il vino!
Glu! glu! glu! io sono la birra!”
Supposedly all branches of US military have adopted a grog tradition. I can testify to the Army side. It’s mostly at dining-ins (formal meal that only includes unit members) but also happens with increasing frequency in my later years at dining-outs and military balls. Ingredients are chosen with an eye towards unit culture and history. A unit that had experience in Cuba during the war with Spain might add rum. One without any historic ties to a region known for rum might not. At dining-ins a trip to the grog bowl is a typical punishment for violating the rules of the mess. Being pleasant to drink is a bug, not a feature, for dining-in grog. There’s a non-alcoholic option …but it’s generally at least as vile, if not more so.
I’ve had grog that featured small amounts of dirt and barbie hair added as special flavorings. Then there was the entire bottle of hot sauce added as part of the contributions to the last grog ceremony I participated in. It was a large bottle. If there was any rum or citrus involved you sure couldn’t taste them.
