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Five O'Clock Punch
1 pint cold water 4 lemons 1 pineapple (For large party) 1 pint grape juice 1 pint boiling water 6 oranges 3 bananas 1/2 cup Maraschino cherries Pour the boiling water on the sugar, and let stand and cool while preparing the fruit. Slice two oranges and two lemons and cut into small pieces. Place in the punch bowl with the cold water and a block of the ice. Add the pineapple and bananas, sliced. Add the juice of the remaining oranges and lemons; then the sugar and water. Just before serving, add the grape juice and cherries. If desired, a pint of ginger ale or Apollinaris may be added in place of the cold water. • •
A fruit punch of the non-alcoholic sort that filled American punch bowls during Prohibition-era and temperance entertaining. The method is sound; only the units and the ice need translating.
- The sugar amount is missingThe instructions call for pouring boiling water over sugar, but no quantity appears in the ingredient list. For a punch of this size, start with about a cup of sugar dissolved in the pint of boiling water and adjust after the fruit juices go in, since orange and pineapple sweetness varies a great deal.
- A block of icePeriod punch bowls took a single large block, which melts slowly and dilutes less than small pieces. Freeze water in a loaf pan or a small bowl overnight; a bag of cubes will melt and thin the punch much faster.
- ApollinarisA German mineral water, then widely sold in the United States as a table water. Any sparkling mineral water or club soda stands in for it. Add it, or the ginger ale, at the last moment so the bubbles survive to the glass.
- PineappleOne fresh pineapple, peeled, cored and cut small. Canned pineapple in juice works, drained, but do not use anything packed in heavy syrup unless you cut the sugar back.
- BananasSlice them last and add them last of the fruit; they soften quickly once in the bowl. They can be left out if you prefer, as they go slippery after an hour in the punch.
- Grape juiceProbably an unsweetened bottled grape juice of the Concord type, then a staple of temperance drinks. It also supplies much of the colour; the recipe holds it back until just before serving.
- Maraschino cherriesThe modern bright red confection is much sweeter than the period article. Half a cup is plenty; drain them, or the syrup will push the punch over.
- YieldMarked '(For large party).' The measured liquids come to three pints before the fruit juices, fruit and ice melt are counted; reckon on roughly three quarts, or somewhere around twenty to twenty-four four-ounce punch cups.
The name simply records the hour: five o'clock was a customary time for afternoon calls and receptions, and a filled punch bowl was the least fussy way to serve a room of people who came and went. Non-alcoholic fruit punches built on citrus, sugar and grape juice were common in American entertaining books of the 1910s and 1920s, when temperance sentiment and then national prohibition made the alcoholic punch bowl awkward. Ginger ale and Apollinaris water, offered here as substitutes for plain cold water, were both commercial bottled goods a hostess could buy ready-made.