Perfect Lemonade Recipe and a Rant on the Simple Pleasures

It’s getting to be the time of year when cold icy drinks are the ticket to bliss, and I just found this recipe for lemonade, which is very similar to the method that I use when I make real lemonade.

You know, real lemonade.

Lemonade picture, by yours truly

Made from lemons. That you squeeze yourself.

No, not from concentrate. No, not Minute Maid or Koolaid.

The real stuff. With real sugar. And real lemons.

Allright, I’m fully into an aside/rant now. It really is amazing what we get used to eating and drinking. I mean for Pete’s sake, does anyone think McDonald’s hamburgers actually taste good? Here’s an experiment that you can run yourself: go eat a McDonald’s burger (doesn’t matter what type, they all suck). Now, surf on over to say, Alton Brown’s recipe page. Grind your own hamburger meat in your food processor out of a mixture of chuck and sirloin with a pinch of salt. Cook the burgers medium rare (you can do that, it’s your kitchen!). Spring for some decent buns, and toast them under the broiler for a couple of minutes. Keep the burger simple: a couple of grinds of black pepper, a thin smear of mayonaisse, and maybe some lettuce (I like the crunchiness). Now, eat. Now, do you ever want to go back to McDonalds again?

Oh, okay, you could add some additional toppings. I like a little brown mustard on mine. If you’ve got some good tomatos, you can put those on. I’ve even been known to smear on some (gasp!) ketchup. I’m beginning to lean away from cheese on burgers, but I do succumb to the mushroom/Swiss combination on occasion.

Oh, and don’t even get me started about french fries. But I’ll save that rant for later.

Damn now I’m hungry for burgers, fries and some good lemonade.

Technorati Tags: , , ,

2 thoughts on “Perfect Lemonade Recipe and a Rant on the Simple Pleasures

  1. Dan Lyke

    Trick I learned from a Cook’s Illustrated a few years back: Mash the sugar up with the peels from the lemons. Gets some of the oils out of the zest and makes the lemonade just that much tastier.

  2. Mark P.

    McDonald’s hamburgers suck because they are devoid of the very ingredient of which you speak: love; and it’s replaced by “profit.” I don’t need to do your little experiment because you explained it so well, but thanks for the lemonade recipe.

Comments are closed.