This week – because I was bored – I decided to test out a recipe that mixes canned tomato sauce with lemon-lime soda.
And no, I’m not making that up.
This is Sparkling Red Rouser!
Just out of curiosity, do you think that mixing 7UP with canned tomato sauce even counts as a recipe? I am not convinced that it does. Even when I see the printed proof before my very eyes.
AuthorRetroRuth
From Betty Crocker Hostess Book, 1967
Tested Recipe!
[cooked-sharing]
Pour tomato sauce and lemon-lime beverage into a pitcher; mix gently. Serve over ice.
Yield: 6 servings
Ingredients
Directions
Pour tomato sauce and lemon-lime beverage into a pitcher; mix gently. Serve over ice.
Yield: 6 servings
Notes
They even had someone illustrate it. Probably because the reality of it was too bizarre to photograph.
I had a small moment when I was in doubt over this. Surely, surely they can’t mean soda, right? Surely they meant you to use some kind of seltzer water or bar mixer. But after a bit of research, I’m pretty sure that lemon-lime soda is what they meant. Unfortunately. Does anyone know of a lemon-lime seltzer or soda water that was sold in 7 ounce bottles in 1967? Because if you do, that would be a great relief.
Well, down the hatch!
“So? What’s the verdict?”
“It’s awful.”
“The real question is, did it rouse your appetite?”
“Yes. I need to eat something to get this horrible taste out of my mouth.”
The Verdict: It Works
From The Tasting Notes –
This was, unsurprisingly, terrible. I thought maybe this would have a chance at being okay at least, but I was wrong. When you take a sip, you get the tartness and the spices of the tomato sauce, then you are punched with the insane sweetness of the lemon-lime soda. After that is a horrible, metallic tomato aftertaste. If you added some hot sauce to this to cancel out the sweetness, maybe it would be palatable. If I were to try this again, I would use lemon-lime flavored sparkling water rather than a sweet soda. Maybe then it would work!
This sounds hideous. However, I would like to try tomato juice mixed with lemon lime Talking Rain or Arrowhead sparkling water.
Maybe it was B-1 they were referring too? It doesn’t sound like a soda pop, but a tonic sort of water.
Isn’t that just 7-Up? I was most definitely around then, but don’t remember exactly what size the bottles were!!
Maybe it just needs a little tobasco. And some Worcestershire sauce. And maybe a little celery salt. And LOTS of vodka. And a celery stalk to garnish.
Oh, wait. That would make it a lot like a blood mary, wouldn’t it? 🙂
Tomato SAUCE just doesn’t seem right — tomato juice, maybe, but it’s still gross. I’m guessing the test kitchen gals had had a long week and made this one up on a Friday afternoon as a joke. Every time they thought about someone actually serving this for company, they wet their pants from laughing.
Someone once served me Clamato juice (why is that even a product?) in beer. It sat untouched.
I was 17 in 1967 and remember that there was a drink called “Wink” that I drank gallons and gallons of. I thought it was a lemon-lime soda, but apparently it was grapefruit based. But if you google “lemon lime soda + 1960s” in the images section, there are quite a few suggestions. 7-Up and Sprite figure largely, but B-1 is mentioned too.
I vaguely recall 7-Up in smaller bottles in the early 70s. This sounds like something a drunk college kid came up with to chase a hangover.
This reminds me of a drink that I had in SE Colorado (Rocky Ford, I think), when I worked out there for the National Park Service. A co-worker took me into a bar and we got something called “a red mug,” which was a draft beer with tomato juice in it. Not something I’d order that often, but it wasn’t horrible.
Susan, you can still get Wink . . . there’s a company that makes the old sodas and puts them in old-looking bottles. I think you can even get Tab, which my wife fondly remembers 🙂
Wink was still around for my childhood in the 1980s, and I think it was* my grandmother’s favorite soda. Pretty sure it existed regionally–in my case, western PA– until the early 2000s.
*She’s still with us, but Wink isn’t.
“If I were to try this again…” NO.
I felt like vomiting just reading about it. I can’t believe your husband didn’t. .
Just curious – is this out of a Betty Crocker cookbook? The illustrations look familiar… and if so, can you tell me which one? I used to have a lot of these – unfortunately have lost them all over the years but would love to replace!
Oh! Yes, sorry about that! I guess I got so excited about this drink I forgot to mention it in the post. This is from the Betty Crocker Hostess Cookbook, the spiral bound one. Thanks for reminding me!!!
My father-in-law was just talking about that beer/tomato juice thing this weekend. He called it a “Cincinnati”!
That sounds MUCH better! 🙂
Thanks, Ruth! Yup, I remember that book well – my mother had it!
That is possible!!! I just looked up B-1 and it was described as: “The soda was somewhat strong, slightly bitter flavor with a punch.” That would go MUCH better with this!
My best friend back in Pittsburgh used to mix tomato juice and beer. She loved it, but I never tried it.
The official drink of My People is the beer and tomato juice. I never knew if it was a Norwegian thing or a western Minnesota thing. This is not the time to use a good craft beer. It has a place on the menu with shandy (mine is fresh lemonade and beer) and mimosas. Of course, if you don’t like tomato juice and you don’t like beer, putting them together does not magically transform them into good champagne.
I’m already puzzled at the popularity of mixing beer and Clamato (that strange stuff I gather is clam juice and tomato juice) but this one hasn’t even any alcohol to numb the drinker a bit. Probably would still be vile with something like bitter lemon. I admire your courage, mind you.
Don’t know about Wink, but Tab is easy to find. I’ve been drinking since it came out! I live in Grand Coulee now and the local Safeway carries it, but I’ve bought it at lots of stores in the last 15 years of living in WA state, and when I lived in OK. The only place that I never could find it was Wally World.
I haven’t tried it, but it sounds like a church Sunday afternoon version of a bloody mary.
Beer and Clamato juice is well liked up here in Canada. Maybe because the ceasar, Clamato juice mixed with vodka was invented up here. We call mixing Clamato in beer a red eye.
Cheap beer + cheap tomato juice + icy cold mug = red draw. A perfect summer drink!
I actually have this book, it was my grandmothers. Could the “lemon lime” beverage possibly be Fresca? I know that was a thing she loved to drink when I was a kid. And it’s a fairly dry soda, as far as I’m concerned. I mean, I can understand how it might taste nasty, but I might try it with unsalted canned sauce, and Fresca, to see. I’ll be a guinea pig…