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Imperial Punch
2 pounds of sugar. 3 pints of water. 1 ripe pineapple. 4 oranges--juice of all, zest of 2. 4 lemons--juice of all, zest of 2. 1 nutmeg. 8 whites of eggs. 1 pint of equal parts of maraschino, noyeau, kirsch, and curacao. 1 pint of champagne.
Grate or mash the pineapple, add the zests and juice of the lemons and oranges and pour on them the hot syrup made of the sugar and water. Let stand till cold. Then strain and press the syrup from the pineapple, freeze and add the whipped whites as usual, and a little while before serving add the liqueurs and champagne.
This is a frozen punch in the grand nineteenth-century manner — a sweetened fruit ice, lightened with meringue and spiked at the last moment. The quantities are for a dinner party, not a household dessert.
- Add the alcohol last, and mean itRoughly a quart of spirits and champagne going into an already-frozen base is the hinge of the recipe. Alcohol depresses the freezing point sharply; stir it in at the start and the mixture will never set beyond a slush.
- YieldThe syrup alone is roughly two quarts before the fruit and whites go in, and the finished punch comes to something in the region of a gallon. Figure twenty or more small servings; a frozen punch of this kind would be served in cups or stemmed glasses rather than ladled from a bowl.
- The syrupTwo pounds of sugar to three pints of water is a light syrup, around 4.5 cups sugar to 6 cups water. Boil only until the sugar is dissolved; there is no candy stage here.
- The nutmeg is an orphanA whole nutmeg is listed and then never mentioned again. Grate it into the hot syrup with the zests so it infuses, and strain it out with the pineapple. A whole one is a lot; half is closer to modern taste.
- "Freeze and add the whipped whites as usual"In the original kitchen this meant a hand-cranked pail freezer, with the beaten whites worked in partway through churning so they aerate the ice. In a modern machine, churn the strained syrup until thick, then fold in the stiffly beaten whites and churn briefly to combine.
- Raw egg whitesEight whites are folded in uncooked and the mixture is never heated afterwards. Use pasteurized whites, sold in cartons, and skip serving it to anyone pregnant, elderly, very young or immune-compromised.
- NoyeauCrème de noyaux was originally flavoured with apricot or peach kernels, which carry the bitter-almond note the recipe wants. Bottlings today are almond-flavoured liqueurs, often dyed pink; an orgeat-based almond liqueur or a good amaretto will stand in, though amaretto is sweeter and will shift the balance.
- Zest, not pithThe zest of two oranges and two lemons is pared or grated into the hot syrup to infuse. Take only the coloured layer — the syrup sits with the fruit until cold, ample time for pith to turn it bitter.
- The pineappleOne ripe pineapple grated or mashed, then pressed and strained out. Nothing sets or thickens here, so the fresh fruit's enzymes are no obstacle; canned pineapple will work but gives a duller, cooked flavour.
Frozen punches of this kind — punch romaine, punch à la Victoria, imperial punch — were not desserts but intermissions. At a formal dinner of the 1870s through the 1900s they arrived midway through the menu, before the roast, on the theory that a cold, sharp, lightly alcoholic ice settled the palate and the stomach for what remained. The meringue folded through the ice is what distinguishes the style: it gives a soft, snowy texture that holds a spoon rather than the hard body of a plain water ice. Freezing on this scale took ice, salt and steady labour. Maraschino, noyeau, kirsch and curaçao turn up together in a number of period punches, and a frozen punch under the name Punch Romaine appears on grand hotel and steamship menus into the 1910s.