A Southern Punch to Souse a Crowd
The response to the New Orleans Junior League eggnog suggests that within the Serious Eats community there is a hitherto unexpressed interest in the alcoholic concoctions of nice Southern ladies. And why not? Without a flutter, they present recipes featuring booze in quantities that would make Dylan Thomas blanch. Witness the Cotillion Club Punch from the aforementioned Charleston Receipts. To make about 300 servings, you'll need:
Cotillion Club Punch
- makes 275 to 300 servings -
Ingredients
1/4 pound gunpowder (green) tea
1 quart cherries
2 dozen lemons, (juice)
Fruit syrup (about 1/2 pint)
12 quarts carbonated water
6 or 8 quarts rye whiskey*
1/2 pint rum
1 pound sugar made into thick syrup
Procedure
Pour five quarts boiling water onto the tea, bring this to a boil; remove from fire at once, and let stand until strong enough. Strain, and when cool, add juice of lemons, syrup from the cherries, and also the rye and rum. Sweeten to taste with any fruit syrup; add sugar syrup and cherries. Bottle this stock and keep on ice until ready to serve. Pour over block of ice, add one quart of carbonated water to one quart of stock. This stock can be kept indefinitely if bottled and sealed.
A note indicates that this punch is "As served at the Club's last dance some years ago." If they were serving this, no wonder the dances have tailed off. Also, this recipe is attributed to "A Charleston Gentleman," which is as well, as one imagines that this punch would lead to the sort of indiscretions it behooves a gentleman to be discreet about.
Enjoy, and if your holiday plans do not involve renting a convention hall, stay tuned for a more reasonably scaled holiday punch.
* Note that most whiskies come in bottles that are 750 ml, or about 3/4 quart, so you'll need 8 to 10 bottles of rye.
About the author: The Gurgling Cod, aka 'Fesser, writes The Gurgling Cod, a blog that is primarily concerned with food.
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1 Comment:
This brings me back. The elder ladies having lunch and drinking what they called "punch". It punched me alright!!! Holy steel magnolia. I snored and woke myself up.
JerzeeTomato at 3:05PM on 12/20/07