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Montrose Punch
Make a mixture of 2 quarts of regular cherry water ice. Then in the usual manner work in 1 pint sauterne, 1 gill kirschwasser, ½ gill of Noyeau and an Italian meringue mixture of 3 egg whites.
A fountain punch in the old sense: a frozen cherry ice loosened with wine and liqueur and lightened with meringue, served soft in a glass rather than scooped. Almost everything here hinges on how much alcohol you can add before it stops freezing.
- GillsA gill is 4 fl oz, so a half gill is 2 fl oz. The additions total 16 oz sauterne, 4 oz kirschwasser and 2 oz noyeau against 2 quarts of ice.
- Alcohol and freezingThat is close to a pint and a half of spirits and wine in two quarts of ice, which is a great deal of freezing-point depression. The mixture will never set firm; it is meant to be a soft, spoonable punch, and it should be held in the coldest part of the freezer and served at once.
- Regular cherry water iceA water ice in fountain usage means a fruit syrup and water base with no dairy, frozen and worked until smooth. A standard cherry sorbet stands in exactly.
- NoyeauNoyau (crème de noyaux) is a liqueur flavoured with stone-fruit kernels, marzipan-like rather than nutty. Commercial bottlings today are generally sweet and often artificially flavoured rather than made from kernels, so taste before adding the full measure.
- SauterneLowercase "sauterne" in American trade writing of this era was a semi-generic borrowing of the Bordeaux name, applied to domestic white wines and not necessarily meaning Sauternes from Bordeaux; such wines ranged from off-dry to sweet. A sweet Semillon, a late-harvest white or a moscato will do the job at a fraction of the cost.
- Italian meringueWhip the three whites to soft peaks and beat in a sugar syrup cooked to about 240F, then whip cold before folding it in. The hot syrup is what stabilises the foam and warms the whites, though it does not reliably pasteurise them; a French meringue of raw whites and sugar will collapse into the alcohol.
- Working it inFold the wine and liqueurs into the churned ice first, then fold in the meringue last and lightly. Overworking at this stage deflates the foam and leaves a watery punch.
- YieldRoughly three quarts once the meringue is folded in, or twelve to sixteen fountain glasses. It does not keep well and is best served soon after it is made.
Frozen punches like this one sat at the grand end of the soda fountain trade, where a dispenser was expected to turn out something that looked like a caterer's ice at a wedding breakfast. The formula is a standard type: a plain fruit water ice, a wine, a spirit or two for character, and an Italian meringue folded through to give body and a pale, mousse-like texture that would hold up in a glass. The pairing of kirschwasser and noyau with cherry is not accidental: both are kernel and stone-fruit flavours, and the combination deepens the cherry into something closer to almond and marzipan than to fresh fruit.