The Punch Topic

[Jaymes]

Here's our family's favorite. Not for the faint of heart. This was my grandmother's recipe. And granny never did like a lot of fruit in her punch.

Bourbon Punch

1 fifth good-quality bourbon

2 6-oz cans frozen lemonade (in the way-olden days, she made up a lemon syrup for this part, but as soon as frozen lemonade became available, she ditched the syrup for the convenience of the frozen product)

2 quarts club soda

Night before, put bourbon in freezer and club soda in fridge. At serving time, combine all ingredients and mix well.

Serve with garnishes (cherries, lemon or orange slices, mint leaves) and bucket of ice alongside.

[Dan Perrigan]

I was at the Ford Mansion -- Washington's Headquarters Museum in Morristown, NJ today. I saw hundreds of amazing Revolutionary War documents and artifacts... and I also saw this: Richard Varick's Punch Bowl. It's a thing of beauty.

Now if I can only find out what punch the Society of the Cincinnati served...

What really struck me was that the bowl was not in the section of the museum that displayed personal items (cookware, watches, clothing, silverware, etc.) It was instead displayed in the weapons section -- surrounded by cannon, rifles, and bayonets. Dangers of the Flowing Bowl indeed!

Dan

[slkinsey]

In the "I can't believe I didn't think of this before" department:

If you're making something like Regent's Punch for 60 of your closest friends, like I am tonight, doing the oleo-saccharum with that many peels can be a bit daunting by hand. On the other hand, if you divide it into batches and put it in the KitchenAid with the dough hook, you can do other things while the oleo-saccharum is making itself. All without giving yourself tendonitis.

[Chris Amirault]

Well, that's genius. Also an Ultra Pride or other grinder would work wonders....

[thirtyoneknots]

In the "I can't believe I didn't think of this before" department:

If you're making something like Regent's Punch for 60 of your closest friends, like I am tonight, doing the oleo-saccharum with that many peels can be a bit daunting by hand. On the other hand, if you divide it into batches and put it in the KitchenAid with the dough hook, you can do other things while the oleo-saccharum is making itself. All without giving yourself tendonitis.

Bravo. I may make punch very soon just to make a point of trying this.

I had wondered before if the paddle would work but never actually tried it.

[KatieLoeb]

That's bloody BRILLIANT! I was driving myself nuts trying to think of a way to do this in a large batch commercial environment. Thank you Sam. You're my hero.

[slkinsey]

So...

The First Rule of Regent's Punch Club is: Don't forget that this is practically an all-booze punch, even though it goes down so easily.

The Second Rule of Regent's Punch Club is: Don't forget that it also contains caffeine.

The Third Rule of Regent's Punch Club is: I can't remember that many things right now.

[Splificator]

There's no hangover like a Regent's Punch hangover. It's like a turbocharged version of an ordinary champagne hangover, universally acknowledged to be one of the very worst of the species. It's the sweaty, desperate sleeplessness that contains its particular cruelty. You have my profoundest sympathies.

[eje]

You have my sympathy as well, Sam.

Speaking of dangerously easy drinking punches, this lactified version of Pisco Punch was crazy:

Pisco Milk Punch

2 Bottles Encanto Pisco

1/2 Bottle Batavia Arrack

1 TBSP Coriander Seed, Crushed

6 Whole Cloves, Crushed

2 Cassia Cinnamon Stick

6 Lemons

16 oz Water

16 oz Sugar

4 tsp Japanese Sencha Green Tea

1 Quart Straus Farms Whole Milk

Method:

Zest citrus and add zest to Pisco and Batavia Arrack. Juice Lemons and add to aforementioned liquid. Add Spices. Allow to infuse for 48 hours.

Heat water and add tea. Steep 6 minutes and stir in sugar. Strain tea leaves out of syrup and chill.

Strain Peels and Spices out of Liquid. Juice other two lemons and add to Flavored Booze Mixture. Heat milk to 140 degrees Fahrenheit. Add to Flavored Booze Mixture. Allow to stand undisturbed for 30 minutes and filter through cheesecloth, removing milk solids. Add Tea Syrup to filtered booze mixture and pour into clean containers. Allow to stand for a couple days. Rack clear liquid off of any accumulated sediment into clean bottles and store. Chill well before serving. Serve on ice and garnish with freshly grated nutmeg. Makes about a gallon.

Edited June 9, 2011 by eje (log)

[CincyCraig]

There's no hangover like a Regent's Punch hangover. It's like a turbocharged version of an ordinary champagne hangover, universally acknowledged to be one of the very worst of the species. It's the sweaty, desperate sleeplessness that contains its particular cruelty. You have my profoundest sympathies.

I had that very Regent's Hangover back during the Holidays. It wasn't very pleasant to say the least.

[CincyCraig]

I made a batch of Chatham Artillery Punch yesterday with the intention of putting it away for the holidays. I used an amalgamation of David Wondrich's two recipes from Imbibe and Punch, plus the addition of a little Benedictine (the use of which I've read in several older CAP recipes). I've made the Imbibe CAP recipe before and I felt that it lacked a bit of kick, but the recipe in Punch seemed too strong and too overtly alcoholic to me. Here's what I came up with for my base:

2 750ml btls of Meier's Pink Catawba

1 750ml btl Cruzan Single Dark Rum

1 750ml Bottle Old Overholt Rye

2 cups Hardy's VS Cognac

2oz Benedectine

1 whole pineapple cut in chunks

1 large box of sliced strawberries

Juice of 1 small Valencia orange

2 cups strong green tea

2 cups lemon juice

1 cup oleo-saccharum infused Sugar In The Raw

The base is fermenting right now in an over-sized stainless steel kettle, and it tastes darn good already. I'll strain out the fruit and pulp after 48 hours, then it all goes into large mason jars which will be stored in a wine fridge until the holidays, when I'll mix it with champagne when it's served. I've been using Saint-Hilaire Blanquette de Limoux Brut for both punches and for cocktails, it's is a real overachiever for $12.00.

[CincyCraig]

I'm hoping that someone can help me here; I strained my punch base using a fine mesh strainer yesterday and put it into sterile mason jars. I put the jars into my wine cooler to age until at least Halloween. Tonight I looked at the punch and it had turned into a lighter color of red that is crystal clear, and there is a large deposit of 'stuff' that has collected at the bottom of the jars.

This deposit is a thick layer of lightish colored sediment that has collected in the bottom of the mason jars. As I said, the punch liquid is completely clear now that this sediment has settled out.

Here are my questions; What is this sediment? Is it pectin, sugars or something else?? And when I'm ready to add champagne and serve the punch, should I pour off the clear liquid (or strain it through double layer cheesecloth) and serve it, or should I stir everything up and serve it that way??

I would greatly appreciate any insight that fellow Egullet members might be able to offer me.

Cheers,

Craig

[slkinsey]

That comes from the lemon juice, etc. It is not very filterable, in my experience. Your best bet is to carefully decant the clear liquid off of the sediment, and carefully segregate the sediment-congtaining liquid in another jar. Then you can try various filtering techniques on that if you like. My experience is that this will have limited effect and that centrifuging is really the only way to filter this stuff out. On the other hand, you may be dealing with a lot more time and patience, and a lot less volume than we normally do with our 12-months-aged Fish House Punch.

[CincyCraig]

Thanks for your reply Samuel!

Just to clarify, are you saying that I should try and get the punch off of the sediment while it ages, or just when I'm ready to serve it?

Cheers,

Craig

[slkinsey]

Depends on how soon you want to serve it. With ours, we probably leave it on the lees for around 11 months and then think about pouring off the clear liquid around a month before the annual holiday party. Or, yanno, whenever we get around to thinking of it. It can be tricky and tedious to carefully pour off the clear liquid, so I wouldn't recommend doing it right before service, or when you might otherwise be occupied preparing for your party.

Much like decanting wine, you want to leave the jars upright and stationary for some time before you prepare to decant them so that the sediment sinks to the smallest possible layer in the bottom of the jar.

[Yajna Patni]

I made Chatham artillery punch for Christmas too. I used the version from imbibe. I used the strawberries and rye. I let the first part sit for 5 days. I used cava for the champagne, which i know was wrong, but it was the last item on my list, and had to be bought with what money there was. It tasted great. I was very home maker ish and made an ice ring with holly in it for decoration. My guests loved it. I had to issue a strong liquor warning... it tasted of strawberries, too much to signal strong liquor to those who are not familiar with my drinks! It was a big hit with my guests. For desert we had gingerbread and I made hot apple toddies with baked apples and a bottle of Lairds apple brandy. This was much liked too.

[Yajna Patni]

For the artillery punch I used white zin, which felt a bit weird, but it was recomended in the book, and really did work with the flavours. The one I got was not too too sweet, so I think that helped, also the rye, being hot and strong, and the j wray made the tastes complex enough that it was not sweet strawberry wine with strawberries.

[thirtyoneknots]

Some years ago I acquired, at a cost of some $4 or $5, a copy of Trader Vic's Book of Food & Drink from 1946, complete with dust jacket still in fair condition. It is a very entertaining read, and a lot of the beverages within will be familiar to anyone well-versed in Jeff Berry's work, but one caught my eye that I have not seen much other analysis on. And so for the benefit of you my dear friends, I will attempt to provide such an analysis, detailing how I have proceeded in compounding this punch for a party tomorrow.

Original Recipe:

WEST INDIES PUNCH

1/2 pound sugar

1 pint green tea infusion

1 dozen large limes

1 cup guava marmalade

2 cups boiling water

1/2 bottle dark Jamaican rum (Red Heart or Meyers's)

1/2 bottle light vatted Jamaican rum (Meyers's or Lemon Hart)

1 pint cognac

1 bottle Madeira wine

Dissolve sugar in tea. Halve the limes, squeeze and add juice and shells to the tea mixture. Dissolve guava marmalade in boiling water and combine with lime juice and tea mixture. Add rum, cognac, and wine and let stand overnight. Remove lime shells and pour over large piece of ice in punch bowl; let chill thoroughly before serving.

[end transcription]

So here is the ingredient list again, with my notes in brackets:

1/2 pound sugar [Florida Crystals, weighed out]

1 pint green tea infusion [i know next to nothing about green tea but managed to find a gunpowder tea from the bulk area of Central Market that might change my mind about it]

1 dozen large limes [This is tricky. My math here seemed to indicate this recipe should need something in the area of a pint of lime juice. Such is the sorry state of citrus this time of year that it took me 22 limes to reach that amount--I added the hulls of 16 of them]

1 cup guava marmalade [Goya guava jelly. I hadn't had this one before, pretty good (I'm a jelly fiend)]

2 cups boiling water [yup, from the kettle. The jelly was surprisingly difficult to dissolve]

1/2 bottle dark Jamaican rum (Red Heart or Meyers's)

1/2 bottle light vatted Jamaican rum (Meyers's or Lemon Hart) [Ok so here's where the real interesting stuff is. By now it's pretty common knowledge that stylistically rum from Jamaica in 2012 doesn't taste all that much like what was available in 1946. 1/2 bottle of dark to me reads like something full-bore, eg Smith & Cross though probably with more age back then--maybe Inner Circle would do the trick? Vatted sounds like something more in the direction of modern Appleton Estate styles--meant to accommodate more genteel palates. My ecumenical side won out, I went with 1 cup each of Smith & Cross, Appleton V/X, and Plantation Barbados 5 yr.]

1 pint cognac [Hardy VS because it's affordable and dependable. For pint I read this as a half liquor bottle aka 'tenth' aka 375 ml. I'm never quite sure what to make of "pint of such and such liquor" since it rarely seems like they are actually talking about 16 (or 20, I guess) ounces. I may be wrong on this but I doubt 4 oz of undistinguished Cognac are going to be the thing that makes this recipe go amiss.]

1 bottle Madeira wine [This is always infuriating. Madeira and Sherry come in a wide variety of styles representing radical variations in sweetness, and yet they are rarely if ever qualified in older recipes. I went with half of very good Sercial (a dry style) and half of a more modest 'medium dry' which I think was labelled that way so as not to confuse with the word 'Rainwater', though it was more or less exactly like a Rainwater. Average abv of the two was 18%.]

So all of this is assembled and is steeping overnight while the ice block makes in the deep freeze. It seems in all respects like an eminently sound recipe with a little interpretation. I'll try to provide an after-action report tomorrow

[Chris Amirault]

Very interested to see how this turns out.

[thirtyoneknots]

I took a picture but it was nothing too interesting to look at so I won't take up bandwidth. The punch was good but overly concentrated--the addition of a quart or so of water helped bigtime. I wouldn't talk anyone out of making this as the flavor is very rewarding, but with all the other things out there still to try I doubt it'll be back at the top of the rotation anytime soon. Overall I grade it as A- and call it a success.

[slkinsey]

A while back Martin Doudoroff and I made a recipe of Fish House Punch as close to the original as I've had. We used Louis Royer Force 53 cognac, Smith and Cross Jamaican rum, Dutch's barrel-aged peach brandy, oleo-saccharum and lemon juice. It was, in a word, delightful. It was interesting to us that the peach brandy did not seem at all apparent when the mixture was at full strength, especially with the other strong flavors in there, but when we diluted it all down to "punch proof" it popped right out.

[thirtyoneknots]

A while back Martin Doudoroff and I made a recipe of Fish House Punch as close to the original as I've had. We used Louis Royer Force 53 cognac, Smith and Cross Jamaican rum, Dutch's barrel-aged peach brandy, oleo-saccharum and lemon juice. It was, in a word, delightful. It was interesting to us that the peach brandy did not seem at all apparent when the mixture was at full strength, especially with the other strong flavors in there, but when we diluted it all down to "punch proof" it popped right out.

Did you add the full amount of water and forego the ice block? Seems apropo if you're riding the way back machine.

[slkinsey]

No, we used ice and however much water it seemed to take to hit the sweet spot.

[KD1191]

I put together a batch of punch for a party this weekend, working from the recipe for 'Canadian' punch in Dave's book. I took liberties, but it turned out quite good. Here's what I ended up with:

750 ml Rittenhouse Bonded Rye

300 ml Russell's Reserve Rye

300 ml Baby Sazerac Rye

120 ml Lemon Hart 151 Rum

120 ml Inner Circle Red Dot Rum

8 oz raw sugar dissolved in 800 ml water

4 Lemons, sliced thin

1/2 Pineapple, sliced thin

The above was combined and left to sit in the fridge for about 6 hours, after which it was strained and added to a punch bowl with large-format ice (fancified with cherries frozen inside). A 750 ml bottle of Pomegranate Sparkling Wine was added just before service and nutmeg was grated for each cup to taste. This volume served 10 just about perfectly.

[CincyCraig]

I found a new-ish Peach Brandy from Peach Street Distillers of Colorado at my local liquor store, The Party Source:

This an 80 proof real Peach Brandy. I have not been able to find a great deal of information about this product, even from Peach Street's own website, so I do not know its exact age. What I have been able to learn is that this brandy is made from handpicked, hand pitted peaches from orchards in Palisade, Colorado. Peach Street fermented the peaches into brandy, and then placed the eau de vie into barrels to age. The final product is surprisingly smooth given its (I suspect) youngish age. There is also a bit of "funk" (and I mean that in a good way!) in this brandy which I like.

I'm going to make a Fish House Punch for a Halloween get together with this brandy using David Wondrich's recipe via Liquor.com:

• Peels of 8 lemons
  
• 2.5 cups Demerara sugar
  
• 16 oz Boiling water
  
• 16 oz Fresh lemon juice
  
• 1 (750-mL) bottle Smith & Cross Traditional Jamaica Rum (or other strong, pungent Jamaican rum)
  
• 12 oz VSOP cognac
  
• 12 oz Real peach brandy*
  
• 3 qt (96 oz) Cold water
  

Garnish: Grated nutmeg

Glass: Punch

Given that there's some funkiness in this brandy I am going to Cut the Smith & Cross back to 8.5 ounces, and sub in 12.5 ounces of Appleton 12 year instead. I also think that the 16 ounces of boiling water that David calls for is extraneous considering the 96 ounces of cold water that's called for in this recipe, plus the dilution from the ice ring. I'll be using Pierre Ferrand 1840 for the Cognac. Now here's my question: I would like to make this punch in advance (preferably on Sunday when I have time) and serve it on Wednesday. Does Fish House Punch lend itself to making ahead of time? I would really appreciate any guidance or suggestions on making FHP in general, and/or making this punch ahead of time, from other members.

Edited October 28, 2012 by CincyCraig (log)