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Anniversary Punch
Make a syrup, by boiling for ten minutes, two pounds of sugar, the grated rinds of one dozen lemons and two oranges, with one quart of water. Strain, and add immediately one glass each of currant, raspberry, and blackberry jelly. When thoroughly cool, add two cups of grated pineapple, two cups of preserved strawberries, a quart of canned peaches, and a half cup of preserved cherries. Cover and let stand overnight. When ready to serve add one pint of grape juice, a quart of ginger ale, one bottle of sarsaparilla and three quarts of Apollinaris.
A large-format temperance punch built on a zest syrup and a pantry's worth of preserves. Read the quantities before you start: as written it fills a punch bowl for a crowd.
- YieldThe finished volume comes to something over two gallons once the syrup, fruit and bottled drinks are combined. Halve or quarter it for anything smaller than a party.
- "One glass" of jellyA jelly glass or tumbler of the period held about 8 ounces, so figure a standard small jar of each. Stir it into the syrup while it is still hot or it will not dissolve.
- ApollinarisA German sparkling mineral water sold everywhere in America around 1900, and here simply the diluent. Any plain sparkling water works; three quarts is a lot of fizz, so add it last and do not stir hard.
- SarsaparillaThen a sweet root-flavored soft drink, closest today to a bottle of sarsaparilla or old-fashioned root beer. Bottle sizes varied at the time, so the quantity here is approximate.
- Rinds, not juiceOnly the grated zest of the lemons and oranges goes in. Grate lightly and take no white pith, since a dozen lemons' worth of zest boiled with pith will turn the syrup bitter, and strain the syrup while hot as directed.
- The preservesDrain the canned peaches and chop them; the packing syrup on top of two pounds of sugar and three jellies makes the punch cloying. Taste before the ginger ale goes in and hold back some sweetener if needed.
- The overnight standThis is the step that matters. Refrigerate the fruit and syrup covered for 8 to 12 hours so the zest oils and fruit flavors come together; the punch is thin and disjointed if served the same day.
- ChillingChill everything, including the bottles, rather than icing the bowl. A block of ice or a frozen ring melts slowly and will not water down two gallons the way cubes do.
On Uncle Sam's Water Wagon belongs to the temperance cookbook tradition, a genre that flourished from the 1880s through national Prohibition and existed to prove that a hostess could set a handsome table without spirits. "On the water wagon" was contemporary slang for having sworn off drink, and the book's whole fruit-punch section is an argument in favor of the alternative: elaborate, expensive, showy drinks assembled from jellies, preserves and the new bottled goods of the era. That is why the ingredient list reads like an inventory of a well-stocked wartime pantry and grocer's shelf at once, with homemade jellies and put-up peaches sitting beside branded bottled products such as ginger ale, sarsaparilla and Apollinaris mineral water. Punches like this one were named for the occasion they served.