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Angler's Punch
Chop a cupful of preserved ginger very fine, grate one pineapple, and add the juice of three lemons and a pound of powdered sugar. Stir until the sugar is dissolved, and when ready to serve add three bottles of ginger ale, and plenty of ice.
A temperance-era fruit punch built on a ginger base, sweetened well past modern taste. Two things need attention before you start: the sugar quantity and the vagueness of "three bottles."
- Cut the sugarA pound of sugar is roughly 2 1/4 cups, and the ginger ale brings plenty more. Start with 1/2 cup and taste after the lemon juice is in; preserved ginger and ripe pineapple are both sweet on their own.
- Powdered sugarIn books of this period "powdered" usually means a fine granulated sugar rather than today's cornstarch-cut confectioners' sugar. Superfine (caster) sugar dissolves the same way; ordinary granulated works if you stir longer.
- Preserved gingerThis is ginger in heavy syrup, sold in jars (often labelled stem ginger). Drain syrup-packed ginger before chopping and count its sweetness against the sugar. Crystallized ginger works but is drier and sweeter still.
- "Three bottles" is ambiguousSoft-drink bottles of the era ran anywhere from about 7 oz to a pint, so the intended volume is somewhere between roughly 21 and 48 oz. Treat about 1 1/2 quarts (48 oz) as a workable reading and adjust to taste.
- Grating the pineappleOne medium pineapple yields about 3 cups of pulp and juice. A box grater over a bowl catches everything; a few pulses in a food processor is faster, but do not puree it to froth.
- Let the base standMix ginger, pineapple, lemon and sugar ahead, then chill an hour or more, so the ginger has time to flavor the fruit. The recipe itself specifies only that the ginger ale goes in when ready to serve, or the punch is flat.
- IceUse one large block or a few big chunks rather than cubes. Small ice melts fast and this punch, already thinned by ginger ale, waters down quickly.
- YieldAbout 3 quarts with the larger reading of the ginger ale, or roughly 20 servings in a 4- to 5-oz punch cup.
Books of this kind appeared in quantity around the coming of national Prohibition, offering hostesses a repertoire of "soft" drinks to fill the space where cups and punches had stood. The fruit punch chapters lean heavily on ginger ale, which had become the workhorse mixer of the period and was widely marketed as a respectable, even healthful, drink. Naming a punch for anglers fits the genre's habit of borrowing sporting and club associations and applying them to something a temperance household could serve without comment. The doubled ginger here, preserved root plus ginger ale, gives the punch a real bite.