Kirche Punch

A frozen punch rather than a drink: an orange water ice slackened with kirsch and lightened with meringue. The original assumes you have already read the maraschino punch entry, so two of its quantities have to be reconstructed.

• A gillHalf a cup, 4 fluid ounces. That is a substantial dose of spirit for a quart of ice.
• KirschwasserClear, unsweetened cherry brandy distilled from whole fruit and stones, dry and faintly almond-scented. It is not the same as the sweet red cherry liqueurs sold under similar names, and a substitution will throw the sugar balance off.
• The missing proportion"Meringue in the same proportion as for maraschino punch" is a cross-reference to another entry in the book; without the companion recipe the exact figure is genuinely unknown.
• Meringue means Italian meringueMeringue -- this may mean an Italian meringue, whites beaten stiff with hot sugar syrup poured in, rather than raw whites whisked cold with sugar. A cooked syrup gives more body and holds up better as the punch softens, but the recipe does not say which is intended.
• Alcohol and freezingHalf a cup of spirit per quart depresses the freezing point noticeably. Freeze and churn the orange ice firm first, then fold in the kirsch and meringue at the end, and expect the finished punch to stay slushy rather than set hard.
• Orange water iceA water ice is fruit juice, sugar syrup and water with no dairy at all. Fresh juice, strained, with syrup adjusted so the unfrozen base tastes a shade too sweet, since cold mutes sugar.
• ServingA quart serves about six as a punch, in small stemmed glasses, either between courses or in place of dessert. It is meant to be eaten with a spoon.