Spring has arrived in all its floral glory and it is time to again ponder that traditional Southern libation, the Mint Julep. From the Kentucky Derby to the summer time porches of Mississippi, mint juleps say “this is the South.” Eudora Welty once called the mint julep “that magic ingredient” of the old South. It is basically a simple drink usually containing only water, sugar, mint and Bourbon or brandy.
The mint julep appears to have been born in Virginia and grown up in Kentucky. It is a legendary drink — but like all legends, fact and fiction merge.
We think of the mint julep as a southern beverage associated with the Kentucky Derby, but the drink was the favorite at New York’s Long Island Derby 38 years before the first Kentucky Derby was ever run.
Columbus newspapers of the 1830s and 1840s often referred to mint juleps, but not in a flattering manner. They were either lampooning those who had to begin their day with a mint julep or two or lambasting congressmen for apparently drinking too many, too often.
Over the years I have become the repository for family cookbooks, many more than 100 years old, and one even dating to 1825. With ancestors having arrived in Lowndes County from Alabama, Virginia and Georgia during the 1830s, the cookbooks provide insight into the original mint juleps of Columbus.
Here in Columbus the mint julep recipes from at least three different mid 1800s homes have survived. There is the Harris-Hardy recipe from Whitehall, the Billups recipe from Snowdoun and the Young recipe from Waverly. All three families had basically the same recipe and it is not the sweet concoction so often served now.
In Snowdoun, a home purchased from Governor Whitfield by John Billups in the mid 1860s, I came across a battered copy of The Virginia Housewife. It had belonged to Sally Govan Billups’ mother and was dated 1825. It contained the recipe for a mint cordial. That was a liqueur that was made with “French brandy” using basically the same recipe as a mint julep and containing only mint, water, sugar and brandy. The recipe did, however, specify that you should “Pick the mint early in the morning while the dew is on it.”
The oldest Columbus mint Julep recipe that I found was in Sally Billups’ 1866 copy of Verstille’s Southern Cookery. It’s recipe was simply:
Mint Julep
“Sweeten a glass of water, and add whisky or brandy to the taste; drop in two or three sprigs of mint and a lump of ice; it is then ready to drink.”
My grandmother Lenore Hardy Billups (Mrs. T C Billups) studied art at Newcomb College in New Orleans, 1909-1913, and I have her cookbook: the 1905 Times Picayune Creole Cook Book. It contains one julep recipe: the Mint Julep a la Creole. In addition to basic mint, water, sugar and whisky or brandy, it also contains lemon, orange and strawberries. Interestingly, an 1840 Natchez newspaper reported that “Mr. Alexander, at the Steam-Boat Hotel, puts strawberries in his mint juleps.”
My grandmother’s mint juleps, though, were made as her mother taught her at Whitehall. That recipe for the Whitehall Mint Julep was published by Eudora Welty after a 1939 interview at Whitehall. The interview still often appears in books and national publications whenever mint juleps are discussed. It even reappeared three years ago in USA Today.
It is a recipe in which sugar water and mint are whispered over a goblet filled with bourbon and crushed ice. Instructions were also specific that a proper mint julep should be made in a silver goblet not a julep cup. The goblet could be held by the stem so as to not mess up the frosting of its sides or allow your hands to unduly warm the contents.
According to Welty, “A collection of recipes from the old South is no more complete than the old south itself without that magic ingredient, the mint julep. In the fine old city of Columbus, in the northeastern part of the state, hospitality for many years is said to have reached its height in Whitehall, the home of Mr. and Mrs. T.C. Billups.”
The Whitehall Mint Julep recipe is as follows: dissolve sugar in water. Bruise a mint leaf in a tablespoon of the sugar water then remove the leaf. Fill a silver goblet with crushed ice and add the tablespoon of mint and sugar water. Then fill the goblet with good bourbon. (I prefer Van Winkle Bourbon but Clyde May’s Conecuh Ridge Whiskey or Jim Beam Signature Craft Bourbon are very good and much more affordable.) Put in a sprig of mint and let stand until the silver goblet is frosted and then “serve rapidly.”
As Eudora Welty said at the conclusion of her interview with Mrs Billups: “Who could ask for anything more?”
The old recipe from Waverly, that grand old historic landmark, has also survived. It is the same as the Whitehall recipe, except at Waverly, rather than simply dissolving sugar in water, a simple syrup was made by boiling the sugar water. That common recipe is not surprising as Mrs. Harris and Mrs. Young were sisters.
In the mid 1800s mint juleps were sometimes called a “smile.” In 1866, the Macon Beacon newspaper explained; “Smiles are the sunshine of the soul…hence the origin of calling mint juleps ‘smiles.'”
Rufus Ward is a local historian. Email your questions about local history to him at [email protected].
Rufus Ward is a Columbus native a local historian. E-mail your questions about local history to Rufus at [email protected].
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 37 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.