Early Colonial Americans were no stranger to drink – in fact, contemporary government estimates showed that they drank around three times as much as Americans do today.
If you sidled up to the bar at a tavern in the Revolutionary War period, you may have found your compatriots sipping a Rattle Skull, a tasty mix of porter or stout, rum or brandy, with lime and brown sugar to make the rougher spirits of that era go down a little easier.
A Rattle Skull is usually made with a porter, which is similar to a stout but is made from barley that is not roasted, while a stout’s barley is roasted. We generally treat stouts and porters as interchangeable, but if you want to be traditional, go with the stout.
