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Lesbia Punch
Fill a punch bowl one quarter full of cracked ice. Add one half pound of powdered sugar, the juice of eight lemons, one half can of preserved pineapple, two sliced oranges, and one half gallon of water. Stir until sugar is dissolved and serve in tall glasses, decorated with fruit.
A large-format temperance punch, built directly in the bowl. It scales to about three quarts before the ice melts, or roughly twelve tall glasses.
- The hinge: dissolve the sugar before the ice doesHalf a pound of sugar will not go into cold water quickly, and stirring against cracked ice mostly just melts the ice. Whisk the sugar into the lemon juice first until it is completely clear, then add the water, then the ice and fruit.
- Half a pound of powdered sugarAbout 2 cups of modern confectioners' sugar, which contains cornstarch and can leave a faint cloudiness. Superfine (caster) sugar at the same weight gives a cleaner drink.
- Juice of eight lemonsFigure about 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 cups of juice from today's fruit, and taste before you commit to all of it. Strain out pips and pulp.
- Half a can of preserved pineappleCan sizes varied, so read this as roughly a cup to a cup and a half of syrup-packed pineapple, syrup included. Canned pineapple in juice is the closest equivalent; if you use it, the punch will need a little more sugar.
- Half a gallon of waterEight cups. Use it cold rather than at tap temperature, since the recipe relies on the bowl ice for chilling and every degree it has to remove is dilution.
- IceA quarter of a bowl of cracked ice melts fast in a sweet-acid liquid. A single large block or a few oversized cubes holds the balance far longer, with cracked ice added to the individual glasses instead.
- ServingMix and let it stand 15 to 20 minutes so the lemon and pineapple syrup marry, then taste and adjust. The sliced oranges are decoration; their pith will turn the punch bitter if it sits for hours.
A straightforward fruit punch of the type long made with rum or brandy, here built on lemon juice, canned pineapple and sugar alone. The name may be borrowed from Lesbia, the woman addressed in the love poems of Catullus and a familiar literary name in English verse.