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Sunset Punch
Take the juice of one dozen lemons, six oranges, and one third of a grated pineapple, and two cups of granulated sugar; strain through a fine sieve, and add to this enough water to make a gallon. Garnish it with strawberries and raspberries, or preserved cherries. Serve ice-cold.
A straightforward gallon of citrus punch from the first year of national Prohibition. The only real technique in it is the balance of sugar to acid, and that is worth attending to.
- What a dozen lemons gives youTwelve lemons of the period yield roughly 1 1/2 to 2 cups of juice; six oranges add another 1 1/2 cups or so. Supermarket fruit varies enough that it is worth measuring the juice rather than counting fruit, and topping up with water to the full gallon at the end.
- Dissolve the sugar firstTwo cups of granulated sugar is slow to dissolve in cold juice. Heating it with an equal volume of water until clear, then cooling it completely before combining, avoids the sweetness settling at the bottom of the bowl.
- Grated pineappleThis most likely means fresh pineapple rubbed on a coarse grater, flesh and juice together, from a fruit peeled and cored first. A third of a medium pineapple is roughly 1 to 1 1/2 cups of pulp. Canned crushed pineapple works, but if it is packed in syrup rather than juice, cut the sugar back accordingly.
- Strain, then reconsiderThe instruction to strain through a fine sieve removes the pineapple fibre and citrus pulp, which is what keeps the punch clear. Press the solids to get the juice out, then discard them.
- Ice and dilutionThe recipe says only to serve it ice-cold; a block of ice in the bowl melts slowly and dilutes less than cubes. If you are using cubes, hold back a cup or two of the water so the punch does not go thin as it stands.
- GarnishStrawberries and raspberries added at the start will go pale and mushy within the hour. Float them just before serving. Preserved cherries here means cherries in syrup, not the modern bright-red maraschino.
- YieldOne gallon is about 128 fl oz, or 20 to 25 servings in the small punch cups of the period; nearer 16 in modern glasses.
Helen Watkeys Moore's On Uncle Sam's Water Wagon appeared as national Prohibition came into force, and its purpose is plain from the title: several hundred drinks for a country that had just been told to stop serving the old ones. Punch was a staple of American entertaining, and hostesses needed something to fill the same bowl. The formula here is the classic one — sour, sweet, weak and strong reduced to citrus, sugar and water, with the spirit simply left out — and the pineapple and preserved cherries are the sort of touch that signalled a proper occasion. The word punch is generally traced to Anglo-Indian usage and the idea of a five-part mixture, though the etymology has been argued over for a long time.