Club Punch
1 cup water 1 quart Vichy 2 cups sugar 3 sliced oranges 1 quart Burgundy 1/2 can pineapple 1 cup rum Juice 2 lemons 1/3 cup brandy 1 cup tea infusion 1/3 cup Benedictine 1 cup tea infusion Ice.
Make a syrup by boiling water and sugar ten minutes. Mix remaining ingredients, except ice, sweeten to taste with syrup, and pour into punch-bowl over a large piece of ice.
A cold-weather club punch of the sort mixed by the gallon for receptions: a wine base fortified with rum and brandy, lengthened with sparkling water and softened with tea and sugar syrup. The ingredient column is set in two halves, so read it as one list.
- VichyVichy water is a naturally carbonated alkaline mineral water; any plain sparkling water or club soda serves. Add it last, just before serving, or the punch goes flat while it sits on the ice.
- Tea infusionA cup of brewed black tea, cooled. (It is printed twice in the ingredient list, probably a duplication across the two columns.) It adds tannin and body to a sweet bowl. Let it cool before mixing so it does not melt the ice block.
- BurgundyIn period American usage this often meant simply a dry red table wine, not necessarily from Burgundy. Any dry, medium-bodied red works; avoid anything heavily oaked or jammy.
- BenedictineA honeyed, herbal French liqueur, still made and still widely sold. It is the signature note of this punch and there is no close substitute; leaving it out gives an ordinary red wine punch.
- The pineapple"1/2 can" refers to a period tin of sliced pineapple in syrup; tin sizes varied, so use roughly a cup of drained slices cut into pieces. Reserve the syrup — it is sweet and can count toward the sugar.
- Sweeten to tasteThe syrup from 1 cup water and 2 cups sugar comes to roughly two cups, more than this batch is likely to need. Add it in half-cup increments and stop; canned pineapple and the wine already carry sugar.
- The iceOne large piece, not cubes. A block or a large frozen ring melts slowly and keeps the punch cold for an hour or more without watering it down. Freeze water in a loaf pan or bowl the day before.
- Yield and strengthAbout three quarts, or 20 to 24 punch-cup servings. With a quart of wine plus a cup of rum and two-thirds cup of spirits and liqueur, it lands near ordinary table-wine strength before the ice melts — serve it in small cups as intended.