A Fourth of July Punch for Patriots, No Politics Required
“America was one of alcohol’s great contributions to the world. And after its founding, the nation returned the favor—in the form of the cocktail. ” ForSlate, I wrote abouthow America gave us the cocktail, the. . .
“America was one of alcohol’s great contributions to the world. And after its founding, the nation returned the favor—in the form of the cocktail. ” ForSlate, I wrote abouthow America gave us the cocktail, the first uniquely American culinary contribution to the world. And forReason, I wrote about America’sfounding drinkers, and the role of alcohol in the founding. Over atThe Wall Street Journal, Emma Camprecommendsmaking Philadelphia Fish House Punch for your Fourth of July celebration. Fish House Punch wasthe very first Fourth of July drinkI recommended in this newsletter, so many years ago, and it’s still a great option—just boozy enough yet surprisingly drinkable and great for a large group. I’ve made it countless times for summer parties, and it’s always a crowd-pleaser. It also has a great backstory: Fish House Punch was the official punch of the Schuylkill Fishing Club in late 1700s Philadelphia. If you’ve never made it, it’s very much worth a go. However, for this Fourth of July weekend, I want to recommend adifferentRevolutionary-era punch that is similarly delicious and historically relevant…At the Buchanan Spring Quoit Club in the late 1780s, political discussion was “strictly” prohibited. This was despite, or perhaps because, the clubincludedsome of early America’s political luminaries, including John Marshall, who became the fourth Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court. Rather, the Quoit Club was a place where gentlemen of stature would gather to play Quoits, a game that involvedthrowing“heavy, ringlike quoits at posts,” somewhat like horseshoes. And, of course, they would drink. They drankjuleps. They dranktoddies. They drank rum, brandy, and sweet, spirituous, imported wine. And, most notably for our purposes, they drank a special, boozy combination of all three: Quoit Club Punch. This year, to celebrate America’s 250th anniversary, I think you should do the same. Quoit Club Punch captures the spirit—and even the specificspirits—of the era. It’s a drink for celebration and socialization, an all-day tipple meant for sharing and relaxation. It’s a punch for sidelining the squabbles of politics. You make it, and drink it, when you wan to come together with your fellow Americans to play games, make nice, and set aside the inevitable disputes one sometimes has with their countrymen. So this Fourth of July, drink punch, have fun, watch some stuff blow up—and maybe try not to talk about politics. Over the past few months, as America’s 250th anniversary celebration approached, I’ve been reading about the drinking habits of America’s Founders and their contemporaries. I suppose it’s inevitable; as men enter middle age, they find themselves thinking more about history. For some it’s World War II. For me, it’s America and booze. As I’ve been reading about early American drinking, a few big things have become clear to me. First, the Founders and their contemporaries drank alot. I keep coming back to areceiptdetailing the lake of booze consumed by George Washington and his pals at City Tavern one night around the signing of the Constitution, showing the truly massive quantities of beer, wine, cider, and punch they consumed. Second, booze was an integral part of their social, intellectual, and professional life. Sharing a drink, often from a communal punch bowl, was a way to gauge the character of another American (or soon-to-be American), and drinking and talking was how much of the nation’s political philosophy was hashed out. Third, they specifically drank a lot of rum, brandy, and Madeira, a fortified wine, something like sherry, from an island off of Portugal that was popular amongst the Founders. We sometimes think of whiskey as the ur-American drink, and that would become true over time. But whiskey as we know it didn’t really rise to prominence until the 1800s, with the rise of mid-Atlantic rye. In the years leading up to the Revolution, America was rum country, especially in Massachusetts. In 1750, Boston was just two miles long, with a population of about 15,000—what we would now think of as a quaint small town. Butaccording toBrooke Barbier’sCocked and Boozy,a new history of the American Revolution through the lens of booze, that single small town supported 63 distilleries, many of which distilled rum from molasses. And the rum they produced wasn’t enough to quench their thirst. They still imported more. So this year, to celebrate America’s 250th anniversary, we’re going to drink an old, Founding-era punch that combines rum, brandy, and Madeira in a single bowl. Quoit Club Punch is simple to make, with straightforward proportions and little in the way of technique. It’s served over ice, which makes it ideal for this unusually hot weekend. And while it’s somewhat boozy when you first sip it, it will mellow and loosen over time as the ice dilutes. The biggest challenge for most of you, I suspect, will be finding Madeira. Madeira isn’t a common cocktail ingredient. But the wine, named for the island on which it’s made, was incredibly popular in early America. Somereportssuggest that during the colonial era, America consumed up to 95 percent of all the wine produced on the island (although some sources suggest the figure was lower). But it was widely consumed around the time of the Founding. “I drank Madeira at a great Rate,” John Adams oncewrotein his diary, “and found no Inconvenience in it. ” George Washington himself supposedly used it totoastthe Declaration of Independence. Why was Madeira so popular? The reasons come down to practicality—and politics. During the colonial era, wine generally had to be imported, because there wasn’t much winemaking capability in America. Madeira, rather conveniently, was both durable and portable. As I noted earlier, Madeira is afortifiedwine, which in this case means that grape spirit (essentially unaged brandy) is added during the production process. That makes it sturdier and less delicate than ordinary wine, and thus ideal for importation. Madeira was also not subject to the same Britishtaxesthat other European wines were. Andthus, as the Massachusetts 250th site puts it, the wine “became the drink of choice in the American colonies, untaxed, widely available, and suited to transatlantic shipping. ” Then, as now, trade and taxes explain a lot of American consumption habits. The earliest known printed description of Quoit Club Punchcomes from Sallie E. Marshall Hardy, in an 1896 article about John Marshall: “The following recipe for the punch used I got from an old Virginia gentleman: lemons, brandy, rum, Madeira, poured into a bowl one-third filled with ice (no water), and sweetened. ”You’ll notice there are no proportions specified. When cocktail historian David Wondrich, who is primarily responsible for bringing this punch to modern attention, first reconstructed the recipe, he called for equal parts brandy, rum, and Madeira, along with slightly smaller volumes of fresh squeezed lemon juice and sugar, which is incorporated via a lemon-peel inflected mixture known as an oleo saccharum. Since then, he’srevisedthe proportions, calling for a brandy-heavy mix that merely uses Madeira as an accent. He says the revised recipe is more accurate. But accuracy is less important than ease or pleasure, so I’m going to recommend the equal parts formula. The equal parts version also has the benefit of making the Madeira a co-equal ingredient, and a significant part of the appeal of this drink is that it’s a showcase for Madeira. You are, of course, welcome to make the more historicallyaccurateversion. It is, as they say, a free country. And it’s your punch. But I prefer the equal parts formulation both for taste and for the ease of scaling. Sticklers should note that I have also altered the lemon and sugar proportions very slightly for taste and scaling ease. In America, we enjoy history, but are not always bound to it. We make things our own. Happy birthday to America, and happy Fourth of July to all my wonderful readers. Before we get to the recipe, a few preparation notes and bottle recommendations:Like Fish House Punch, Quoit Club Punch calls for an oleo saccharum, a sugar-and-lemon-peel infusion. That might sound intimidating, but all it really means is that before you mix things up, you’ll need to let your sugar rest in a bunch of lemon peels for at least an hour, and possibly for as long as a day. Making an oleo saccharum only takes a few minutes, but if you’re concerned about time, you can make it the morning before you serve your punch—or even the night prior. For the brandy, I recommendPierre Ferrand 1840, a cocktail-focused quasi-replica of a young, lively Cognac from the 1800s. It’s somewhat pricey, but worth it. If you want something less expensive, or you can’t find that specific bottle, most decent Cognacs will do, and in a pinch you can even use an affordably priced, widely available, aged American brandy like E&J VSOP. For the rum, I recommendSmith & Cross, a high-proof, ultra funky Jamaican rum that captures the oomph and character of colonial era imported rums. It’s quite intense, but it gives the punch a great personality. For a mellower, lower-key punch, try something like Appleton Estate Signature. Please, however, do not use a light, white rum. For the Madeira, the usual recommendation is a “rainwater” Madeira—a sub-style that is on the light side. But for my test batch last weekend, I used Broadbent Reserve 5 Year, which is a little richer and sweeter. If you’re concerned about using a sweeter expression, cut the Madeira proportion by 25 percent when you first mix, then add it back in later if it’s too dry. (The initial mix of a punch is something like a first draft. It may need some editing and revising, and you can always add sweetness. ) Really, though, most any Madeira is going to work here. Just use something relatively affordable. You don’t need to splurge on a $50 sipping wine. Unlike many punches from the same era, this punch calls for no water or tea. It does, however, call for ice. You should ideally use a very large block of ice, or two. You can prepare an oversized ice dome by filling a Tupperware container orsilicone measuring bowlwith water and placing it in the freezer overnight. Because there is no water, the punch will start out quite strong. But over time, as the ice melts, it will dilute. This will lengthen and loosen the punch, as well as lower the ABV. This is supposed to happen. Punch is designed to change over the course of the day or the evening. It’s a party drink, and parties tend to relax over time; this is a drink that quite literally chills out with you. Finally, for those who really feel like rewriting history, or flat-out ignoring it, an absolutelynothistorically justified tweak that I think improves the mix: As the punch dilutes, it will weaken somewhat, and the booze will lose some of its presence. So consider adding some light spice—by adding Angostura Aromatic bitters to your ice. Just add a couple dashes to the water before freezing, so that the warming spice of bitters slowly melts into your drink, adding new layers of flavor as the day goes on. You’ll end up with a punch that’s something like America itself: always changing, always shifting, perhaps losing some of its original intensity, but gaining depth and character over time. This is a scaled down recipe that should suit groups of 4-6. To make a larger batch, just scale up the recipe by multiplying each ingredient. Peels from 4 lemons6 ounces white sugar6 ounces (by volume) fresh squeezed lemon juice (juice the lemons after peeling them)8 ounces Madeira8 ounces dark rum, preferably Smith & Cross8 ounces brandy or Cognac, preferably Pierre Ferrand 18402 dashes Angostura Aromatic bitters (optional)INSTRUCTIONSIf making large format ice, fill a silicone or Tupperware bowl with water, and Angostura bitters if desired, then place it in the freezer a day or so before you plan to serve the punch. (You can use smaller ice, but a big half-dome of large format “punch” ice looks better and dilutes more slowly. )At least an hour before serving, and up to one full day, make an oleo saccharum by combining the white sugar with the lemon peels in a bowl. Let sit until just before serving time. Just before serving time, add lemon juice to the sugar-peel mix. Stir to integrate. You can strain or pull out the lemon peels at this stage, but this is not strictly necessary. Add rum, brandy, and Madeira to the mix, stirring gently to integrate. Add ice to mix, or pour the mix into a punch bowl over ice. Serve with a ladle in small, ice-filled glasses. Thanks for reading Cocktails With Suderman ! This post is public so feel free to share it. ShareWho, sadly, are not going to enjoy the fireworks. No posts