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Ceylon Punch
2 large teaspoons of Ceylon tea 2 quarts of boiling water 1 pound lump sugar 8 lemons 4 oranges 1 pineapple 3 bananas 1 pint strawberries Steep the tea in the boiling water for five minutes, strain, add the sugar. Grate the rind of the lemons, and squeeze the juice. Cut the oranges into thin slices, shred the pineapple, slice the bananas and hull the strawberries. When the tea is cold, add all the fruit, and let it stand on the ice for several hours. One cup of Maraschino cherries may be added.
A large fruit-and-tea punch bowl of the kind meant for a reception rather than a family dinner. Nothing here is difficult, but the proportions and the handling of the fruit repay attention.
- Tea strengthTwo teaspoons of leaf for two quarts makes a weak tea — a background rather than the main flavour. Use a brisk Ceylon black tea and strain it at five minutes as directed; longer steeping can turn the tea bitter as the punch stands.
- Lump sugarLoaf or lump sugar was cane sugar in solid form, cut or moulded into lumps. A pound is about 2¼ cups of granulated sugar. Stir it into the tea while it is still hot so it dissolves readily; in cold liquid it dissolves far more slowly.
- Grated rindGrate only the coloured zest of the lemons and stop at the white pith, which is bitter. Adding the zest to the hot sweetened tea rather than to the cold punch extracts far more of the oil.
- BananasSliced bananas darken within an hour and go slack after several hours on ice. Add them at the last moment, or leave them out — the punch loses nothing.
- "Shred the pineapple"This means a fresh pineapple, peeled, cored and torn or cut into fine strips rather than the neat rings of canned fruit. Fresh pineapple contains bromelain, which is harmless here but will not set with any gelatine dessert served alongside.
- "Stand on the ice"This means the icebox, not ice floating in the bowl. Chill the punch for the several hours specified, and ice it separately at serving time so it is not watered down before the guests arrive.
- Maraschino cherriesThe name originally meant marasca cherries preserved in maraschino liqueur, sharper and less sweet than the bright red confection sold under the name now, though the sweetened dyed version was already on the market by this period. Modern maraschino cherries will push an already sweet punch further.
- YieldSomething over four quarts once the fruit and juice are in; the number of servings depends on the size of the punch cup.
Ceylon tea is the tea of what is now Sri Lanka, planted in bulk from the 1870s after leaf rust destroyed the island's coffee estates; by the time this book appeared the word "Ceylon" on a tin was a straightforward mark of quality black tea, heavily advertised in Britain and America. Iced tea punches like this one belonged to the reception table and the church social — large, cold, showy with fruit, and pointedly free of spirits at a period when temperance sentiment was strong and Prohibition was close.