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Jamaica Punch
Boil one and one third cups of sugar in one quart of water with the grated rind of one lemon for ten minutes. When thoroughly cool, add two teaspoonfuls of ginger syrup, one half cup of orange juice, and one third cup of lemon juice. Strain, and serve with cracked ice.
A straightforward sugar-syrup punch that needs no special equipment; the only ingredient likely to stall a modern cook is the ginger syrup.
- Ginger syrupAt the time this meant a heavy sugar syrup infused with bruised fresh ginger or, in commercial form, a druggist's flavoring syrup of the kind sold for soda fountains. Bottled ginger syrup from the cocktail aisle works, or simmer sliced fresh ginger in equal parts sugar and water for ten minutes and strain.
- Boil the rind, not the juiceThe grated lemon rind goes into the boiling syrup; the juice is added only after the syrup is cold, which keeps the fresh juice from being cooked.
- "Thoroughly cool" means coldAdding juice to warm syrup will flatten the drink. Chill the syrup completely, ideally several hours in the refrigerator, before the juice and ginger go in.
- Ten minutes of boilingA quart of water with 1 1/3 cups sugar will reduce noticeably in ten minutes at a hard boil. Keep it at a bare simmer so you finish with roughly the volume you started with, or the punch will be cloying.
- Citrus quantitiesHalf a cup of orange juice is two to three medium oranges; a third cup of lemon juice is about two lemons. Fruit varies, so taste before serving.
- StrainThe grated rind and any ginger solids need to come out through a fine sieve or a doubled layer of cheesecloth, so the rind is not left standing in the punch.
- YieldRoughly five to six cups before ice. Cracked ice in the glass rather than the bowl keeps it from watering down while it stands.
The name signals flavor rather than origin: Jamaica stood in the American mind for ginger, and "Jamaica ginger" was the standard trade term for the dried rhizome imported from the island, sold in grocery and drug stores as a root, an extract and a syrup. A punch of citrus, sugar and spice would traditionally have carried rum, and the Jamaica label points straight at it. The fruit punch bowl is often said to have become a standard non-alcoholic centerpiece of American receptions well before national Prohibition arrived. The ginger syrup here is what carries the heat that spirits would otherwise have supplied.