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Fruit Punch (Pounds sugar quarts water)
2 pounds sugar 2 quarts water 2 quarts mineral water 2 cups sliced strawberries 3 sliced bananas 1 large pineapple, shredded 6 oranges (juice) 4 lemons (juice) 1 cup raspberry or other fruit syrup Crushed ice Boil sugar and water together to form a syrup. Chill; add the mineral water, fruit and ice, with more water if the punch is too strong. Serve very cold. Serves 40.
A large-format party punch built on a cooked sugar syrup rather than dissolved sugar, which keeps it from going gritty at the bottom of the bowl. The proportions are generous even for forty, so scale by half for a normal gathering.
- Mineral water means carbonatedMineral water probably means carbonated -- in this period "mineral water" on a beverage page often means bottled sparkling water or seltzer rather than still spring water, though the recipe itself does not say. If you use a sparkling water, add it at the last moment, after chilling, or the punch will be flat before the first cup is poured.
- The syrup ratioTwo pounds of sugar to two quarts of water is roughly 4.5 cups sugar to 8 cups water -- a thin syrup, not a heavy one. Bring it just to a boil until the sugar is fully dissolved, about two minutes, then chill it thoroughly; boiling it down further will make the finished punch cloying.
- "Too strong" means too sweetThere is no alcohol here, so the original's warning refers to the intensity of the sugar and citrus. Taste after the ice has begun to melt and thin it with plain water rather than more syrup.
- Bananas go lastSliced bananas soften and darken as they sit in the punch. Slice them directly into the bowl as you serve, or leave them out and add only the strawberries and pineapple.
- Fruit syrupRaspberry syrup here is the sweetened fruit cordial sold for sodas and ices, not a preserve. A good-quality raspberry or blackcurrant cordial, or the drained syrup from frozen berries, does the same job of colouring and rounding the punch.
- Pineapple"1 large pineapple, shredded" means a fresh fruit peeled, cored and torn or grated coarsely, roughly 4 cups of flesh with its juice. Canned crushed pineapple works, but if it is packed in syrup rather than juice you will want to reduce the sugar in the base to compensate.
- Ice as dilutionCrushed ice melts fast and is part of the recipe's water content. If you want the punch to hold its strength through a long party, freeze some of the syrup mixture into a block or ring and float that instead.
- YieldForty servings implies small punch-cup portions. The listed liquids alone come to four quarts before the juices, fruit syrup and fruit are added, so the finished volume is considerably more than that and you will need a full-sized punch bowl or two large pitchers.
Fruit punch of this kind belongs to the long era of the punch bowl as the centrepiece of American entertaining, from church socials and wedding receptions to the club luncheon. The word punch is generally traced to Sanskrit and Hindi words for "five," for the five classic components -- spirit, sugar, citrus, water and spice -- and what happened over the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries was the quiet removal of the first of those, under pressure from temperance sentiment and then Prohibition. What remains is the architecture: a sugar syrup, two citrus juices, soft fruit for body, a coloured cordial for depth, and sparkling water to lift it. Bottled mineral water and out-of-season pineapple in the same list mark this as a recipe for a household with access to a well-stocked grocer, and the serving figure of forty tells you it was written for an occasion rather than a family supper.