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Pineapple Punch
2 cups water 1 1/4 cups sugar 1 can grated pineapple 4 lemons (juice) 1 quart ice water Combine water and sugar and boil 10 minutes. Add pineapple and lemon juice, cool, strain, and add ice-water. Put piece of ice into punch bowl, pour punch over it and garnish with cherries and thin slices of lemon from which the seeds have been removed. Serves 6.
A straightforward sugar-syrup punch of the sort that filled 1930s reception menus. Two details need translating: the can size and the block of ice.
- The can of pineapple"Grated" pineapple was a standard pack in this period; the recipe does not give a size, but a No. 2 can (about 20 oz) is the likeliest. Crushed pineapple in juice is the direct modern equivalent; use the fruit and its juice together.
- Boil the syrup, but watch itTen minutes of boiling reduces 2 cups of water noticeably and thickens the syrup. Keep it at a bare boil in a covered pan, or cut the time to 5 minutes if you want a thinner syrup; the total sugar, and so the sweetness of the finished punch, is the same either way.
- Strain or don'tStraining removes the pineapple fibre and gives a clear punch suitable for a bowl and cups. Leaving the pulp in makes a cloudier, more substantial drink; the recipe assumes the clear version.
- LemonsFour lemons should give somewhere around 2/3 to 3/4 cup of juice; measure rather than count, and adjust against the syrup, since sweetness varies with the canned fruit.
- The piece of iceThis means a solid block, which melts slowly and waters the punch down far less than cubes. Freeze water in a loaf pan or a large plastic container the day before.
- Yield"Serves 6" is generous only if you are pouring punch cups. The batch comes to roughly 2 1/2 quarts before the block of ice, which is about twelve 6-oz servings.
- Make it aheadThe syrup-and-fruit base can be made a day or so in advance and kept covered in the refrigerator. Add the quart of ice water and the block of ice only when the bowl goes out.