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To Make Wine Punch
pounded according to the above directions, the dealer will obtain 120 gals., 25 below proof.
Rum Punch. (Quick Method.) 18 gals. spirit, 30 A. P. (or 20 gals. New England rum, and 1/2 lb. Jamaica rum essence), 2 gals. Jamaica rum, 1 lb. Jamaica rum essence (or 1/2 lb. if very strong), 5 drachms oil of lemon, 1/2 drachm oil of cloves, 2½ lbs. tartaric acid, 18 gals. sugar syrup, 3 oz. allspice. Cut the essential oils in spirit, 95 per cent. Dissolve the tartaric acid in 2½ gals. water. Make the sugar syrup in the proportion of 6 lbs. white sugar to 1 gal. water. Mash the allspice, and infuse ten days in a quart of alcohol, 95 per cent. First add to the spirit the rum essence, and stir, then the Jamaica rum, stir. Then the lemon oil, stir. Then the tartaric acid, stir. Lastly, color, and stir again.
Wine Punch. (Quick Method.) 10 gals. spirit, proof, 10 gals. Marseilles or Catalonia wine, 10 gals. syrup (3½ lbs. sugar per. gal. water), 3 oz. ground allspice, infused ten days in a pint of spirit, 95 per. cent., 2½ drachms lemon oil, cut in spirit, 95 per cent., 1/2 lb. tartaric acid, dissolved in 1/2 gal. water, 1/2 drachm oil of cloves, cut in alcohol, 95 per cent. If not red enough, add some cherry juice.
To make Wine Punch. Another Method.
To 10 gallons proof spirit; add 10 gallons Marsala or Catalonia wine. Take 10 gallons syrup made of 35 pounds sugar; peel the rind, thinly, of 120 lemons; bring the syrup to a boil, and simmer the lemon rinds in it for 1/2 hour or more, then strain it through a fine flannel. Mixall the above with the juice of the lemons. Instead of boiling the lemon peel in the syrup, it may
This is trade-scale compounding rather than home cookery: three related formulas for punch built from spirit, wine, syrup and essential oils. The figures are for barrels, and several of the fractions in the ingredient list have not survived legibly, so treat the proportions as a guide to method rather than a set of numbers to follow.
- Scale down before anything elseThirty gallons of finished punch is roughly 115 litres. Divide every quantity by 40 and you land near a 3-quart batch, which is a sensible amount to test a formula on.
- "Proof spirit" and "30 A. P."Proof spirit in this trade meant about 50 percent alcohol by volume, i.e. 100 US proof. "30 A. P." is thirty percent above proof, around 65 percent ABV, and "25 below proof" is about 37 percent. A neutral grain spirit or vodka at 40 percent is the nearest ordinary equivalent, and the sugar and wine will dilute it further.
- DrachmsAn apothecary's drachm is one eighth of an apothecaries' ounce, about 3.9 g. Two and a half drachms of lemon oil is roughly 10 g, which for a 30-gallon batch is a small but not trivial dose; scaled to a few cups it becomes a matter of drops. Measure essential oils by weight or by drop count, never by spoon.
- "Cut in spirit"Cutting means dissolving the oil in a little high-proof alcohol first. Citrus and clove oils will not disperse in a watery syrup and will float in a slick on the surface if added directly. Do this step properly or the punch tastes of nothing until the last glass, which tastes of soap.
- Food-grade oils onlyOil of lemon and oil of cloves here mean the flavouring oils sold to the drinks trade. Modern aromatherapy oils are not sold for ingestion and should not be substituted. Fresh lemon zest and whole cloves will do the same work with less risk of overdosing.
- The wines namedMarsala is a fortified Sicilian wine and still widely sold; "Catalonia wine" and "Marseilles" appear to have been cheap strong southern wines bought in bulk. A robust Grenache or an inexpensive fortified red is in the same register.
- Syrup proportionsThe first wine punch specifies about 3.5 lb sugar per gallon of water, the second 35 lb sugar for 10 gallons of syrup. Both are lighter than the 6 lb of sugar per gallon of water in the rum formula, so the punch drinks drier than the sugar weight suggests.
- The lemon rindsOne hundred and twenty lemons peeled thinly and simmered in the syrup is the flavour backbone of the third method. Take only the coloured zest; any white pith carried into a long simmer turns the syrup bitter. Strain through flannel or a double layer of muslin while hot.
- ColouringThe instruction to "color" reflects a period trade in caramel and cochineal tints. Cherry juice, as the second formula suggests, is the honest way to redden it.
- Allspice infusionThree ounces of crushed allspice steeped ten days in a pint or quart of high-proof spirit is a tincture, and it cannot be hurried much. Start it before you assemble anything else.
Manuals like this one were written for wine and liquor merchants who blended and "rectified" rather than distilled, taking in neutral spirit by the barrel and turning it into branded rum, brandy, gin and bottled punch with essences, acids and syrups. The repeated heading "Quick Method" is the selling point: real punch was mixed fresh and good rum was often aged in cask, whereas these formulas gave a saleable product in the time it took to infuse a jar of allspice. The word punch is generally traced to the Hindi and Sanskrit words for five, after the five elements of the original East India Company drink -- spirit, sugar, lemon, water and spice -- though the derivation is not certain, and every one of them is still visible in these recipes, with tartaric acid standing in for part of the citrus and Marsala or a bulk Spanish red doing the work of the water. The tartaric acid is worth noting on its own: cheap, stable and shippable, it let a merchant give a whole barrel the bite of fresh lemon at a fraction of the cost.