MxMo: Vintage Cocktails #11: Fish House Punch

Try as I might, I have never been prepared for a mixology monday.  I always know about it for weeks  and then forget, clamoring at the last minute to put something up.  This month is similar in that I am  sitting here, at 9pm mixing up my beverage.  However, I have known for a while what I wanted to put  up.  This month’s MxMo is hosted by Mike at Hobson’s Choice, and his theme is Punch.  As  I am  working through Vintage Spirits, I noticed that there were several punches listed, and since I am making each and every drink in the book, I thought it was only fitting that this entry combine the two.  First off, lets look at what punch is.

Punch is a loanword from Hindi panch and the drink was made from five different ingredients: spirit, sugar, lemon, water, and tea or spices.  Sounds very similar to the definition of a cocktail.  The drink was brought back from India to England by the sailors and employees of the British East India Company in the early seventeenth century, and from there it was introduced into other European countries.  The term punch was first recorded in British documents dating back to 1632. At that time, most punches were of the Wassail type, or with a wine or brandy base, but by around 1655, when Jamaica came out with rum, the ‘modern’ punch was born and by 1671, there were references to punch houses.

Perhaps one of the most famous punches, supposedly partaken by many of the founding fathers of our nation, was created at the Schuylkill Fishing Company also known as the “Fish House”.  Out of that famed gentlemen’s club comes the Fish House Punch.  The Fish House Punch recipe has had many variations over the years, but I will go with the one listed in Vintage Spirits.  A similar recipe can be found in Jerry Thomas’s Bon Vivant’s Companion.

Fish House Punch
2 Quarts Jamaican Rum (Appleton 12yr)
1 Quart Brandy (Hennessy VS)
1/2 Pint Peach Brandy
1/2 Pint Maraschino Liqueur
1 Quart Green Tea
1 Pint Lemon Juice
1 Lb Powdered Sugar
1 Bottle Champagne
Serve over ice.

Maybe not obvious, but I did not mix the large recipe up for this post, but instead mixed up a batch for about 5 drinks.
The punch is very forward on the rum, but pairs excellently with the brandy. The fruit flavors linger in the background, with the maraschino adding the small amount of bitterness to keep the drink in balance. All in all, a great concoction which is historically accurate to the origins of punch, and which may see an appearance at my next party.

You can find the round up for this month’s MxMo here

Vintage Cocktails #9: The Barbara West Cocktail

A classic martini styled cocktail, the Barbara West is sure to please those who love the original martini. Starting with fruit flavors provided by the sherry, and finishing with a dry mouthfeel, this is a great drink for after work while you are reading the paper. (Which coincidently is what I did. How very old mannish of me.)

The Barbara West
2 oz Gin
1 oz Sherry
1/2 oz Lemon Juice
1 dash Angostura Bitters
Garnish with a lemon twist

Vintage Cocktails #8: The Bebbo Cocktail

Next up we have the Bebbo Cocktail. Based upon the Bee’s Knees Cocktail, this drink is another variation on a classic sour formula. It is exactly the same as the Bee’s Knees with the addition of some OJ. Instead of using sugar or simple syrup for the sweetener, we will be using honey. The secret here is to heat the honey to lessen its viscosity and then dissolve the honey in the other ingredients before shaking with ice.

The Bebbo Cocktail
1 1/2 oz Gin
1 oz Lemon Juice
1/2 oz Honey
2 teaspoons Orange Juice
Garnish with a cherry

Vintage Cocktails #7: The Aviation

Much can be said about the Aviation cocktail. First appearing in Hugo Ensslin’s Recipes for Mixed Drinks (1916), This is a drink that has many variations, and is one of the drinks that started the classic cocktail renaissance. The original recipe is similar to the one I have posted below, with one exception. The original drink called for the addition of crème de violette, a violet liqueur that can be difficult to find. Harry Craddock’s Savoy Cocktail Book (1930), omitted the crème de violette, whether on purpose or by accident, and for the most part the drink has been made without it ever since.

The other unique ingredient in the Aviation is Maraschino Liqueur, a bittersweet, clear liqueur flavored with marasca cherries, which are grown in Dalmatia, Croatia, mostly around the city of Zadar and in Torreglia (near Padua in Northern Italy). The liqueur’s distinctive earthy flavor comes from the marasca cherries, and the distillate is allowed to mature for two years in Finnish ashwood vats, and is then diluted and sugared. The two most popular brands are Luxardo and Maraska.

The Aviation
2 1/2 oz Gin
3/4 oz Lemon Juice
2-3 dashes Maraschino Liqueur
Lemon twist garnish

Vintage Cocktails #6: The Delicious Sour

This next drink first appears in the 1892 book The Flowing Bowl by William Schmidt. Apparently Schmidt loved to create his own drinks with odd and questionable ingredients, and only occasionally came up with a winner, and this cocktail is definitely a winner!

None of the ingregents in this book are really rare, or unusual in my book. Sure, it uses an egg white, but to me that has just become part and parcel to a great cocktail. I’m not sure I can really even enjoy a sour without that old school layer of foam on the top. Anyhow, the drink does contain Applejack, which I think can be classified as America’s original native spirit. A distillate of hard cider, Applejack is a much bolder “version” of Calvados, the French apple brandy. Applejack, technically is a brandy, but tastes, acts, and is used more like a whiskey. While there were once many distilleries producing this product, now there are few.

Laird & Company of New Jersey is the sole remaining company producing applejack. They make two versions, a generic version of apple spirits mixed with neutral grain spirits, and a bottled-in-bond product. Get the latter if you can find it. Clear Creek Distillery in Oregon also makes an apple brandy that is quite bold, and I think can be subbed for the Applejack if need be.

The Delicious Sour
2 oz Applejack
2 oz Peach flavored Brandy
1 oz Lime Juice
1 Egg White
1 tsp Sugar
Top with Soda Water

The Delicious Sour upon first sip gives a great apple flavor, followed by a rich peach taste, and has a long finish of the sour, flavored again by apple. It is not harsh, in fact, despite that there are 4 oz of liquor, I could barely taste any alcohol at all. Really a splendid drink, and one that I think I will enjoy often. Or at least will press upon others until they give in!

Vintage Cocktails #5: The Blinker

The Blinker
2 oz Rye Whiskey
1 oz Grapefruit Juice
1 tsp Raspberry Syrup

This drink is a great twist on the classic sour formula. The less tart grapefruit provides the sour, but not overwhelmingly so, and the raspberry syrup adds the sweet. At first glance, I was a little apprehensive about the fruit combinations, however it turned out to work pretty well.

The secret, I think, is in the juice. For my first attempt at this drink, I went with a white grapefruit juice because that it was I had sitting around the house. It made a decent drink, but lacked that “sparkle” that I think pink grapefruit would provide. All in all a pretty decent cocktail, and one that I will probably add to my whiskey based list.

For the raspberry syrup, (which can be hard to find by the way) I used Smucker’s Red Raspberry Syrup. It has a great taste and viscosity, which works great in cocktails. It is available in my area at Fred Meyer stores.

Vintage Cocktails #4: The Blackthorn

So apparently going through the book in order is out, as some ingredients are proving difficult to acquire, and some just make sense to do together.

Henceforth comes the Blackthorn. Since I had the bottle of Dubonnet opened, I figured I might as well use it while it was good.

The Blackthorn Cocktail
1 1/2 oz Gin
1/2 oz Dubonnet
1/2 oz Kirschwasser

This drink is not a winner for me. It was a fine, well balanced drink, just not suited to my tastes.

Vintage Cocktails #3: Arnaud’s Special

Arnaud’s Special is an interesting cocktail in that it contains Scotch. There are only 4 drinks in Vintage Cocktails that include Scotch, and most people have only heard of one: the
Blood and Sand. I am curious as to why there are not more Scotch drinks however, as it is a whisky and there seems to be plenty of those. Granted it’s bolder flavors and smokiness can prove difficult, but all the more reason that people should be taking on the challenge.

The Arnaud’s is really a variation on the Manhattan, and a succesful one at that.

2 oz Scotch
1 oz Dubonnet Rouge
2 dashes orange bitters

Vintage Cocktails #2: The Alamagoozlum

First appearing in The Gentleman’s Companion, or Around the World with Jigger, Beaker and Flask (1939) by Charles Baker,
The Alamagoozlum Cocktail is the next exploration of the vintage spirits. Reportedly created by the one and only J.P. Morgan, this is an unusual drink in that it calls for an extraordinary amount of ingredients, as well as an unusually large dose of bitters.

This particular cocktail will probably be one that I will leave to the books and not partake of for a long time, if ever.
While I am a fan of gin and rum together, as well as using egg whites in cocktails, The large amount of bitters, coupled with the chartreuse created a drink that for me was far too spicy and complex. Perhaps either dialing down the bitters, and/or reducing the Chartreuse may create a drink more to my liking, but as far as J.P.’s cocktail, this one is a bust for me.

The Alamagoozlum
1/2 Egg White
2 oz Genever Gin
2 oz water
1 1/2 oz Jamaican Rum
1 1/2 oz Chartreuse
1 1/2 oz gomme Syrup
1/2 oz Orange Curacao
1/2 oz Angostura Bitters
Shake long and hard in an iced cocktail shaker, and strain into several chilled glasses.

A note on gomme syrup. Gomme syrup is purely simple syrup combined with gum arabic. The gum arabic was added to the simple syrup to add a smoother, silky feel to the cocktail. My feeling is that in this drink, the egg white adds plenty of texture, and plain old simple syrup will suffice.

Vintage Cocktails: #1 The Algonquin

Here commences the inaugural post of the Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails challenge.

If I may be permitted to already leave the alphabetical structure of the book, and move to the second drink listed.  The reason for this is quite simple actually.  I get home from work a little early and decide to make a drink while I do some work that needs to be done.  I open my book, but to my disappointment, drink #1 is a recipe for 3 drinks at once.  Doable I guess, but it calls for half an egg white, and as the author points out, it is extremely difficult to measure half of a little goopy egg white.  Also, 6 drinks is really far more than anyone should consume at one time, so off to number 2 we go.

The Algonquin
1 1/2 oz Rye Whiskey (I used Old Overholt)
3/4 oz Dry Vermouth
3/4 oz Pineapple syrup
Shake in an iced shaker and strain.

Now, when I say an iced shaker I mean a boston tin packed to to top with ice!  I would probably also normally double strain my drink into my chilled cocktail glass, but sometimes I really enjoy that layer of ice shards floating on top, so I didn’t.

I actually really enjoyed this cocktail.  I was pleasantly surprised as I don’t really have a love for wines or fortified wines.  Also, Pineapple syrup? Weird.  What I found was that the vermouth complements the spiciness of the rye, and the pineapple provides the necessary sweetness, without distracting from the flavors.  I could find myself drinking this drink on a semi-regular basis.