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Strawberry Punch
Mash two quarts of strawberries, add the juice of two lemons and three quarts of water. Put in ice box for three or four hours, and then add one pound and a half of sugar. Stir until the sugar is dissolved, strain, serve with cracked ice, and decorate with fresh strawberries.
A straightforward maceration punch that needs no cooking. The only thing that can go wrong is sweetening too early or straining too aggressively.
- YieldRoughly four to five quarts once the pulp is strained out, which fills something like 35-40 small punch cups. Halve it comfortably for a pitcher.
- Two quarts of strawberriesSold by volume in 1919; that is about 2.5-3 lb of fruit, or roughly three of the 1-lb plastic clamshells. Hull them before mashing.
- Sugar goes in last, and that is deliberateSugar goes in last -- As written, the fruit steeps in plain lemon and water first, and the sugar is stirred in only after the steeping time is up. The recipe does not say why.
- "Ice box" means the refrigerator"Ice box" -- An insulated, ice-cooled cabinet; the modern stand-in is the refrigerator. Three to four hours there gives the fruit time to steep as well as chill.
- SweetnessA pound and a half is about 3 1/3 cups, which reads sweet to a modern palate over five quarts. Add two-thirds of it, taste, then finish. Dissolve fully before straining or you will strain out undissolved crystals with the pulp.
- StrainingA coarse sieve gives a bright punch with body. Pressing hard on the pulp pushes fine flesh through and turns it cloudy.
- Ice at the last minuteCracked ice in the bowl dilutes fast. Chill the punch thoroughly first so the ice is there for temperature and appearance rather than doing the cooling work.
- KeepingMade with fresh uncooked fruit and no alcohol, it is best the day it is made; colour and flavour fade in the refrigerator.
On Uncle Sam's Water Wagon (1919) is one of a number of books published as national Prohibition approached, offering hostesses something to put in the punch bowl in place of claret cup and champagne punch. The title is the period idiom itself: to be "on the water wagon" was to have sworn off drink, an expression usually traced to the horse-drawn carts that sprayed water on dusty streets, though that derivation is traditional rather than documented. Strawberries were a seasonal fruit in 1919, and the recipe spends two quarts of them on the liquid and still asks for more whole berries on top.