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Regent's Punch
Take the very thin rinds of two lemons, two China oranges, and one bitter one. Pour over them half a pound of white sugar-candy which has been boiled to a thin syrup with water and allowed to cool. Let the rinds infuse for an hour. Pour over them a pint of cold strong green tea, and add the strained juice of the fruit, a glass of rum, a glass of brandy, a glass of arrack, a glass of pineapple syrup, two bottles of champagne, and one of seltzer water. Strain the punch through lawn till it is quite clear, bottle immediately, and put it into ice for an hour or two till wanted. Serve in a bowl or jug. If preferred, instead of using pineapple syrup, a fresh pineapple may be sliced into the punch.
A Regency-style iced punch built in stages: a sweetened citrus oleo-saccharum, then tea and juice, then the spirits and sparkling wine. Everything depends on getting the aromatics out of the peel before the wine goes in.
- The hinge: peel first, bubbles lastThe hour-long infusion of citrus rind in cool syrup is what gives the punch its perfume; skip it and you have spiked fizz. Strain the base clear, chill it hard, and add the champagne and seltzer at the moment of serving so the carbonation survives.
- Do not bottle it sealedThe original says to bottle immediately and ice it. Sealing two bottles of champagne plus seltzer into fresh bottles builds pressure; chill the base and the sparkling wine separately and combine in the bowl.
- "A glass"A wine glass of the period, roughly 2 fl oz. Three glasses of spirit -- rum, brandy, arrack -- plus a glass of pineapple syrup comes to about a cup in total, against two bottles of champagne.
- China oranges and the bitter oneA China orange is an ordinary sweet orange. The bitter one is a Seville, in season only in winter; without it, use the peel and juice of a second sweet orange plus a little extra lemon, and accept that the punch will be softer.
- White sugar-candyLarge crystallised sugar, sold in lumps. Half a pound of granulated sugar dissolved in about a cup of water gives a comparably thin syrup; let it cool fully before it touches the peel, as the recipe directs.
- ArrackHere it means Batavian arrack, a Javanese sugarcane-and-red-rice spirit, funky and high-proof. Bottles are again available; a heavily pot-distilled Jamaican rum is the usual stand-in.
- Strong green teaA pint, brewed at roughly double normal strength and cooled. Brew it short — around 175F water for two to three minutes — since long steeping at boiling temperature makes it bitter and the tannin muddies the finished punch.
- Straining through lawnLawn is a fine plain-woven linen. A double thickness of damp muslin, or a paper coffee filter for a smaller batch, gives the same brilliant clarity.
- YieldRoughly three and a half quarts, depending on the size of the seltzer bottle; twenty or more punch-cup servings. Ice it as a block or in a large mould rather than in cubes so it dilutes slowly.
Punch reached Britain through the East India trade, and the name is generally traced to the Hindi pānch, five, for the five elements of spirit, sugar, citrus, water and spice. This version carries the name of George, Prince of Wales, Prince Regent from 1811 and later George IV, whose kitchens at Carlton House and the Brighton Pavilion were famous for extravagance; recipes headed "Regent's Punch" circulated widely in nineteenth-century cookery books, each claiming descent from the royal household, and they differ markedly in the spirits used. What the versions share is the shape seen here: green tea instead of water, three different spirits including Batavian arrack, and champagne to lift it -- a punch designed to be drunk cold from a bowl at a ball rather than hot from a tankard.