Hello Chanticleer Society.
Might anyone know of a punch recipe popular in England during the 1700s? The university library where I work is hosting a 300th birthday party for Dr. Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) and I have been charged with finding a recipe that he was likely to have drunk. I found a recipe called Dr. Johnson's Punch in an arts magazine entitled Punch. (It may be found here in PDF on page 3.) However, it is a hot punch and there are few southern Californians who would imbibe cups of hot punch in September, at least that is the consensus among my colleagues. If anyone knows or could direct me to a source for such punch recipes, please advise.
Thank you.
Timothy
I've prepared this a number of times - a real crowd pleaser - posted here on Chowhound but lifted from David Wondrich's Imbibe! for Bombay Government Punch: http://www.chow.com/recipes/11781. You can find the Batavia Arrack (make sure it's Batavia) at numerous specialty shops in SoCal such as Wine House, Hi-Times, Wally's, and others.
From the article:
The precise proportions for this recipe are taken from the 1694 regulations the English government put out for Bombay punch houses, which mandated “if any man comes into a victualling house to drink punch, he may demand one quart good Goa arak, half a pound of sugar, and half a pint of good lime water, and make his own punch.” Now, Goa arrack was made from coconut-palm sap, but sugar-cane arrack and then rum were natural substitutes. The further substitution of cognac for part of the rum or arrack was common as early as the 1680s, and indeed soon became the preferred way of making it. The addition of a goodly amount of water or tea is also both traditional and extremely sensible.
Game plan: For a more stimulating concoction, use cold black or green tea (use 2 tablespoons loose tea or 6 tea bags) in place of the final 6 cups of water.
This recipe was featured as part of our story The Return of Punch.
Eric,
Thank you for the suggestion. I ran it by some of the other librarians and they said they'd much rather drink your suggestion.
One question: do you have the page reference for the recipe in Imbibe? I couldn't find it in my copy. Also, other than Wondrich's fantastic history, do you know of another book that has a good amount of punch and early cocktail recipes with histories?
Again, thank you for your help.
Eric, thanks for the recipe and the recommendation. You are right, it is a crowd pleaser.
Do you happen to know how long Batavia Arrack was unavailable in the US?
Enlightenment is knowing that what was intended was a party - Vic Baranco.
More philosophy at Cocktails at 80
To my knowledge there was some stock available post WW-II, but effectively none stateside in forty to fifty years.
A list of cocktail books with a good range of Punch recipes would have to include Jerry Thomas' book - earlier than this publication you end up consulting old cookery books (a lot of them from France, or at least written in French).
Histories of the British Raj also often mention punch recipes. Most of the British mounted regiments stationed there would have a specialty punch reserved for balls and parties.
One of my favourites is the Dragoon Punch. The Dragoons were created towards the end of 18th Century and used mostly as crowd control that could be deployed quickly around London and along the roads out of the city (used several times to raid suspected smugglers' villages on the Cornish coast).
Dragoon Punch:
1/2 stout or porter
1/2 fino sherry
1/4 brandy
1/4 sugar
sparkling wine
fruit.
Combine all except the sparkling and chill for a couple of hours before hand. When ready present in a large bowl with a block of ice and pieces of fresh cut fruit. Top with sparkling.
Simple but quite rich.
I had this lately at 1806 in melbourne, if you write them, im sure they'll help you with the specs... I copied/pasted this from their website:
http://www.1806.com.au/
Fish House PunchOne of the finest flavour matches around, peach liqueur with rum and cognac. Don`t be deceived by the flavour, there are no mixers, just booze with booze.The Fish House Club on the Schuykill River near Philadelphia created this punch some time in the 1700`s, reputably the recipe was given to the club by one of its founders, George Washington. The drink was prepared as a lunchtime punch bowl that would sit on the bar and be slowly emptied by thirsty customers. George Washington himself declared that this punch was the only way to celebrate national holidays. Indeed, at several viewing of the troops, the corps would be presented to the President before moving away to where huge cauldrons of this punch had been prepared. It is no surprise that the President would get three rousing cheers from the soldiers. Lemon juice, Jamaican rum, Peach Brandy, cognac and water, this is a true military drink, simple and very very strong.