No. 3502

Beatrice Punch

Punch a la Beatrice

For twelve persons take about one quart of lemon water ice (No. 3604) and add to it two drops of extract of citron. To two well-beaten egg-whites put one gill of boiling syrup at thirty-five degrees; lay aside to cool and when very cold incorporate in the ice a little good rum, a quarter of a bottleful of good champagne and four soupspoonfuls of Italian meringue (No. 140); fill with this some swans made of gum paste (No. 3624), having the top parts hollow.

← No. 3501 Punch and Sherbet Ices & Ice Creams No. 3503 Bouquetiere Punch →

For the Modern Kitchen Do not make this as written.

A frozen punch from Ranhofer's Delmonico's kitchen, written as a set of cross-references rather than a standalone recipe. Nearly every quantity assumes a professional pastry department, so the conversions matter more than usual.

The hinge: add the alcohol last and keep it coldThe hinge: add the alcohol at the end and keep everything cold -- rum and champagne depress the freezing point, so the recipe puts them into the already-cold ice along with the meringue. Added earlier, the mixture will be slower and harder to set.
"Thirty-five degrees" is a Baume readingNineteenth-century kitchens measured sugar syrup with a saccharometer, not a thermometer. Thirty-five degrees Baume is a heavy syrup of roughly 65 percent sugar by weight, about 2 parts sugar to 1 part water, boiled. It is not an oven or candy temperature.
A gill and a soupspoonfulA gill is half a cup (4 fl oz). A soupspoonful in this book is a tablespoon, so four of them is a quarter cup of Italian meringue. "A quarter of a bottleful" of champagne is about 6 fl oz.
Extract of citronProbably an extract of citron peel (Citrus medica) rather than lemon, though French usage makes 'citron' the word for lemon and the reading is uncertain. Two drops is a trace note behind the lemon ice; a scrap of finely grated citron or lemon zest is a reasonable substitute if the extract is unavailable.
Raw egg whiteThe boiling syrup poured into the whites is what cooks them, and the finished punch is never heated afterward. Use pasteurized whites if serving anyone who should avoid raw egg, and pour the syrup in a thin steady stream while beating so no white sets in lumps.
The gum paste swansNo. 3624 is a sugar-paste showpiece, edible in theory and structural in practice. Coupe glasses, hollowed lemon shells, or small stemmed dishes serve the same purpose; the swans were there for the dining room, not the flavor.
Yield and serviceA quart of lemon ice plus meringue and wine divided twelve ways gives servings of roughly three ounces. This is a palate course, served partway through a long dinner rather than as a dessert portion.
TextureExpect something closer to a firm slush than a scoopable sorbet, and serve it straight from the freezer into chilled vessels. It softens within minutes.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer, chef at Delmonico's in New York for some three decades, published The Epicurean in 1894 as a complete record of the restaurant's repertoire, which is why entries like this one read as instructions to a staff who already knew what No. 3604 and No. 140 were. A frozen, spirit-laced punch served midway through a long dinner was a fixture of the period's grand menus, the best-known example being punch romain; the course was understood as a pause and a stimulant rather than a sweet. Ranhofer named many such variants after people, places and operas, and the fashion for such tributes was strong enough that the source of a name is often unrecoverable, so any specific Beatrice here should be treated as a guess.