Home › Fruit Punches › Rainbow Punch
Rainbow Punch
Put into a kettle one cupful of honey, one cupful of sugar, four cupfuls of water, the juice of two lemons, strained, and the grated rinds of four oranges. Boil for five minutes, then set aside until thoroughly cool. Put a large piece of ice in a punch bowl, adding the juice of ten oranges, three oranges sliced, one grated pineapple, and one quart of strawberries. Then pour over the syrup, and serve when ice cold.
A cooked citrus syrup poured over fresh fruit and a block of ice — straightforward, but the proportions assume a large gathering and a punch bowl that can hold a solid block.
- YieldAs written this makes roughly a gallon before the ice melts, enough for 20 to 25 small punch cups. Halve everything for a normal party bowl.
- The grated rindsZest the four oranges before juicing anything, and take only the coloured layer — the white pith turns the syrup bitter over a five-minute boil. Strain the syrup through a fine sieve or cheesecloth once it has cooled, or the rind shreds will clog the ladle.
- Cool it completelyThe syrup must be cold before it meets the fruit. Poured warm, it cooks the strawberries and pineapple to mush and melts the ice immediately, leaving the punch watery.
- Grated pineapplePeriod cooks grated a peeled fresh pineapple on a box grater to get pulp and juice together. A food processor pulsed to a coarse pulp does the same; a 20 oz can of crushed pineapple in juice is an acceptable stand-in, but drain off some of the syrup it packs in.
- The block of ice"A large piece of ice" means a single block cut from a larger cake, not cubes. Freeze water in a loaf pan or a small mixing bowl overnight — one large mass melts far more slowly and keeps the punch cold without diluting it.
- StrawberriesHull them and leave small ones whole, halve large ones. They soften quickly in acid, so add them at the last moment if the bowl will sit out for more than an hour.
- SweetnessA cupful each of honey and sugar makes a very sweet syrup by modern standards, and today's dessert and juicing oranges are generally bred sweeter than older varieties — taste the finished punch and hold back some of the syrup if it needs it.
Non-alcoholic punches were a staple of temperance entertaining: fruit punch could be made in volume, looked festive in a cut-glass bowl, and relied on a boiled sugar syrup, which dissolves evenly in cold liquid. The name here appears to be descriptive — orange, red strawberry and pale pineapple suspended around a block of ice. Honey used alongside sugar may reflect sugar economy, sugar supply in the United States having been restricted during the First World War.