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Belfast Punch
Cook for ten minutes one cup of sugar with one cup of water, and add one half dozen whole cloves, small piece of stick cinnamon, and a small piece of ginger root. When thoroughly cold add the juice of two lemons and two oranges, one drop of oil of peppermint, and a very little green coloring. Let stand until well blended. Pour into a punch bowl with plenty of ice, and garnish with sprigs of mint.
A temperance-era punch that is really a spiced citrus syrup: the recipe as printed yields roughly two cups of concentrate and assumes you know to lengthen it. Everything else is straightforward, with one ingredient that needs a light hand.
- The single drop of peppermintOil of peppermint is not extract. It is the concentrated essential oil, and one drop genuinely means one drop, measured off a toothpick or dropper rather than poured. If you are using peppermint extract instead, which is diluted in alcohol, add it a few drops at a time and taste as you go. Buy an oil sold as food grade.
- It needs dilutingAs written this makes about two cups of sweet-sour concentrate, far too intense to drink. Fill out the punch bowl with about six cups of cold water, plain soda, or ginger ale, which brings it to roughly twelve servings. Taste before you add ice, since the ice will dilute it further.
- Strain the spicesThe recipe does not say to strain, but the cloves, cinnamon and ginger root are clearly there to steep. Add them to the syrup once the ten minutes are up, let it cool completely, then strain before the citrus goes in. Whole cloves left floating in a punch bowl are unpleasant to catch in a glass.
- Ginger root"A small piece" may mean either fresh root or the dried whole root sold at the time. If you use fresh, a small piece sliced thin will give up its heat best. Powdered ginger will cloud the syrup and taste flat by comparison.
- The green coloringColoring was sold in liquid form by druggists and grocers. Modern gel colors are far stronger; a toothpick dipped in green and swirled through is plenty. The intent is a pale mint tint, not emerald.
- "When thoroughly cold"This matters more than it sounds. Adding citrus juice and volatile peppermint oil to warm syrup drives off the aromatics and dulls the fresh lemon note. Chill the syrup fully first.
- Mint garnishSlap the sprigs between your palms before floating them. Bruising releases the oils; whole untouched sprigs contribute almost nothing but color.
On Uncle Sam's Water Wagon belongs to the flood of dry-drinking books that appeared as national Prohibition came in around 1919, when hostesses who had built their entertaining around punch bowls suddenly needed something to fill them. The formula here is the standard American fruit-punch skeleton — a spiced sugar syrup, lemon and orange juice, ice, mint — dressed up with green coloring and peppermint to suggest an Irish theme. The name is very likely a nod to Belfast ginger ale, the sharp dry style associated with the Belfast firm of Cantrell & Cochrane and widely sold in the United States at the time, which would have been the obvious thing to lengthen this syrup with; the green tint and mint do the rest of the work. Such national or civic names were a common conceit in punch chapters of the period, where a recipe's identity often rested on a color scheme and a garnish rather than on any real regional pedigree.