Home › Fruit Punches › Prohibition Punch
Prohibition Punch
To the grated rind of one lemon and the juice of two lemons, add the bruised leaves of one bunch of mint, and let steep for one half hour. Make a syrup of one pint of water and one pound of sugar, by boiling ten minutes. Add the lemon juice with the mint, the juice of one orange, and a cupful of pineapple juice. Strain, and chill thoroughly. Serve in small glasses with a sprig of mint and a cherry in each glass.
A concentrated mint-lemon cordial rather than a bowl punch — the finished quantity is small and deliberately sharp. Read the yield before you plan on it for a crowd.
- Bruise, do not chopPress the mint leaves firmly with the back of a spoon or a pestle until they smell strongly, then leave them whole, as the recipe directs. Cutting or mincing tends to give a grassier, greener-tasting infusion.
- The half-hour steep is the hingeRind, juice and mint sit together off the heat. Mint in acid gives up its oils quickly and then begins to taste stewed, so do not extend the steep to an hour or overnight thinking it will improve.
- Do not put the mint in the hot syrupThe syrup is boiled separately and the mint mixture goes in afterward. Boiling mint sets a cooked, almost medicinal flavor that will not go away.
- Syrup proportionsOne pint water to one pound sugar is roughly 2 cups to 2 1/4 cups by volume — a fairly rich syrup. Ten minutes at a boil concentrates it further; expect a scant pint and a half back.
- Pineapple juiceA period cook would most likely have used juice drained from a tin of pineapple, which is sweeter and less aggressive than fresh. Fresh-pressed pineapple works but is more acidic, so taste before chilling.
- Strain properlyA fine sieve catches the leaves; a second pass through a damp cloth or coffee filter removes the pulp and rind particles that otherwise cloud the glass.
- Yield and dilutionYou will finish with roughly a quart — about eight to ten of the "small glasses" specified. It is strong enough that most modern palates will want it cut with chilled still or sparkling water, or poured over ice.
- The cherryThe maraschino cherry began as a fruit preserved in liqueur, though cheaper brined and dyed imitations were already common by this period. A modern brined-and-dyed cocktail cherry adds little; a good preserved cherry or a fresh one in season is better.
Temperance-minded drink books multiplied in the years around 1919, when national Prohibition was arriving in the United States, and titles playing on riding "Uncle Sam's water wagon" — the older slang phrase behind the expression "on the wagon" — were part of that publishing wave. Fruit punches like this one did practical work in such books: hostesses still needed something to hand round in small glasses at receptions, and a mint-and-citrus base steeped cold, sweetened with a boiled syrup and finished with a mint sprig and a cherry, reads as a deliberate echo of the mint julep and the claret cup it was meant to replace.