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Victoria Punch
Grated rind two oranges 1 cup angelica wine 1 cup cider 1½ tablespoons gin Prepare same as Cardinal Punch; strain before freezing, to remove orange rind. 2 cups water ¾ cup sugar
A frozen punch — a water ice stiffened with wine and spirits — meant to be served in small glasses between courses or as a light dessert. The alcohol is the whole difficulty: it depresses the freezing point, so the mixture never sets hard.
- Ingredient list, sortedWorking from the text: 2 cups water, about 3/4 cup sugar, grated rind of two oranges, 1 cup angelica wine, 1 cup cider, 1 1/2 tablespoons gin. The sugar quantity as printed is unclear and 3/4 cup is the proportion these punches normally use.
- "Prepare same as Cardinal Punch"The method has to be taken from the parent recipe: a syrup of the sugar and water, cooled, then the flavourings and liquor added and the whole frozen. The recipe directs only that the grated rind be strained out before freezing.
- Angelica wineA sweet fortified white wine from California, once common and now rarely stocked. A cream sherry, a sweet white vermouth, or a Muscat-based dessert wine gives the closest result; reduce the sugar slightly if the substitute is very sweet.
- CiderIn American books of this period cider usually means sweet, unfermented apple juice, though hard cider was sometimes called simply cider too. Use fresh, unsweetened apple cider or good cloudy juice.
- FreezingWith the sugar syrup and a cup of fortified wine plus the gin, this will only ever reach a soft, granular slush. Churn it in an ice cream maker or freeze it flat in a metal pan and rake it with a fork every twenty minutes, granita fashion. It will not scoop like ice cream and is not supposed to.
- Strain properlyGrated orange rind left in the mix freezes into hard, bitter flecks. Pass the whole thing through a fine sieve or cheesecloth before it goes near the freezer.
- Yield and serviceAbout a quart, which is eight to ten small punch-cup servings. Serve in chilled glasses straight from the freezer; it slumps quickly at room temperature.
Frozen punches occupy a peculiar place in turn-of-the-century American dining: served midway through a long formal dinner, ostensibly to refresh the palate before the roast, they were a fashionable import from French service and a discreet way to put spirits on the table. Fannie Farmer's ices chapter carries a whole run of them — Cardinal, Roman, Victoria — built on the same frame of sugar syrup, fruit, wine and a spoonful of something stronger, with each name signalling a different combination rather than a different technique. Angelica wine dates the recipe firmly: it was a sweet fortified wine associated with California's Los Angeles vineyards and widely sold in the East in the 1890s and 1900s, before Prohibition dismantled the trade it depended on. The royal name carries no documented connection to the Queen herself.