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Fruit Punch
In a punch bowl put a large piece of ice, on this pour a cup of dry vermouth, two cups of currant juice, two cups of diced pineapple, the juice of a lemon and a quart of Apollinaris, or White Rock.
A light, low-proof punch built on vermouth rather than spirits, and mixed directly in the bowl. The only real technique is sequencing: everything but the sparkling water goes in first, and the water goes in at the moment of serving.
- Apollinaris and White RockBoth are branded sparkling mineral waters, still sold in some markets. Any dry, strongly carbonated mineral water or club soda stands in; a quart is 4 cups.
- Currant juiceAlmost certainly red currant juice rather than black currant cordial or crème de cassis, though the recipe says only 'currant juice'. Bottled red currant juice or nectar works; if you press your own from fresh or frozen currants, expect it to be sharply tart, which is the point here.
- No sugar in the originalWith dry vermouth, currant juice and lemon and no sweetener at all, this lands very austere by current palates. Taste before the soda goes in and add a little simple syrup if it needs rounding — a couple of tablespoons is usually enough.
- The block of iceA single large piece melts far more slowly than cubes and is what keeps the punch cold without watering it down over an hour. Freeze water in a loaf pan or small bowl the day before; cubes will thin it noticeably.
- PineappleFresh diced pineapple gives both fruit and a little juice as it sits. Canned pineapple in juice works, drained, but adds sweetness the recipe does not otherwise have.
- Order and timingThe original lists vermouth, currant juice, pineapple and lemon over the ice, with the sparkling water last. Nothing is said about stirring or resting, but adding the mineral water only at serving keeps it from going flat.
- Strength and yieldAbout 9 cups before ice, so eight or nine modest punch cups. One cup of vermouth across the whole bowl makes this a very mild drink, appreciably weaker than a light beer per serving.
Apollinaris, a German mineral water, and White Rock, from Waukesha, Wisconsin, were widely available branded sparkling waters that American cookbooks often named where a recipe called for soda water, much as one might now write "seltzer." Vermouth punches of this kind belong to a tradition of hot-weather entertaining in which a bowl of something cold, faintly alcoholic and mostly fruit was an expected answer to summer company. Red currants were grown in gardens in the northern states and put up as juice, which may be why the recipe assumes two cups of it are at hand.