Roman Punch
Grate the rind of four lemons and two oranges upon two pounds of sugar. Squeeze the juice of these, and let it stand several hours. Strain them through a sieve. Add one quart of champagne and the whites of three eggs, beaten very light. Freeze, and serve in hock glasses.--Mrs. C. C. Mc P. Roman Punch.
To make a gallon. One and a half pint of lemon juice, rinds of two lemons grated on sugar, one pint of rum, half a pint of brandy, two quarts of water, three pounds of loaf sugar. A pint-bottle of champagne is a great improvement. Mix all together, and freeze--Mrs. B. C. C.
Two versions from two contributors: a champagne ice thickened with raw egg white, and a larger rum-and-brandy version for a gallon freezer. The second is the more practical of the two.
- The raw egg whitesThe first version folds three uncooked whites, beaten very light, into a mixture that is only ever chilled. Nothing in the process reaches a temperature that would deal with Salmonella, and freezing preserves rather than kills it; alcohol at this dilution is not a reliable safeguard either. That is the reason for the caution above, and it applies only to Mrs. C. C. Mc P.'s version. A current recipe should be used if you want a meringue-lightened punch.
- Grating rind onto sugarThis is oleo-saccharum: the sugar draws the citrus oil out of the zest, giving a far more aromatic base than juice alone. Use unwaxed fruit, grate only the coloured layer, and let the sugar sit until it is damp and clumping before adding juice.
- Loaf sugarSugar sold in hard cones or loaves, broken up and pounded as needed. Ordinary granulated sugar is the equivalent; three pounds is about 6 3/4 cups.
- Quantities of juiceA pint and a half of lemon juice is roughly 16 to 24 lemons, and the finished gallon carries about twice as much sugar by weight as juice — sharp and very sweet at once, which is the point of the style.
- "Freeze"At the time this meant a hand-cranked freezer packed with ice and coarse salt. The high sugar and alcohol content means it will never set hard; expect a coarse, spoonable slush. A modern machine or repeated stirring in a shallow pan gives the same result, and it will slump quickly once out of the freezer.
- Hock glassesTall, narrow-bowled stemmed glasses for Rhine wine. Any small stemmed glass works; the portion is a small one, not a dessert serving.
- YieldThe second recipe states a gallon, which is 30 to 40 of these small servings. The champagne version makes a good deal less.
Roman punch — punch à la romaine — was not a drink but a course, a frozen spirituous ice served midway through a long dinner in the French service to clear the palate before the roast. Careme gives a version in the early nineteenth century, and by the 1870s it had become a fixture of formal American menus; it appears on the Titanic's first-class dinner card of April 1912, where it precedes the roast squab. Its presence in Housekeeping in Old Virginia, contributed twice by two different ladies, shows how thoroughly the multi-course European dinner had been absorbed by Virginia households that were otherwise cooking hoecake and ham. There is a durable story that Roman punch was served at White House dinners as a way of smuggling liquor past a temperance-minded hostess, usually pinned on the Grant or Hayes administrations; it is traditionally told rather than documented, and the dish had a perfectly respectable culinary reason to be on the table.