Because bad punch sometimes happens to good people, it is not unusual to hear about those who have sworn off the beverage completely.
James Beard must have had a run-in with an inferior brew before he wrote his objection more than half a century ago in “Hors d’Oeuvre & Canapes”:
“And let us once and for all boycott that strange concoction known as ‘punch’ and take our fruit juice straight. Good, plain, chilled orange or grapefruit juice, tomato juice, grape or pineapple juice will always find customers.”
But when family and friends gather for holiday reunions, toasting with glasses filled with grapefruit juice seems woefully low on the festivity scale.
Punch, on the other hand, sparkles with a sense of celebration.
Originally inspired by panch, a drink from India, meaning “five in Hind1, punch found its way here as an English recipe export (this sentence as published has been corrected in this text). As it gained in popularity, spreading regionally, the original British colonial drink combining five parts (sugar, citrus, spices, water and liquor) expanded in concept and ingredients.
Served in large vessels, consumed in small sips, punch at an informal party encourages self-service and mingling at the punch bowl. At a family gathering it can offer much more than refreshment when cups raised around the punch bowl toast the past, present and future. Family rituals continue when youngsters grow up and pass on the tradition to their children.
Eve Evans Earles remembers the eggnog-filled punch bowl placed on the sideboard in the gracious brownstone her great-aunt, a retired teacher, owned on 47th Street and Champlain Avenue during the 1950s.
“My great aunt only made the recipe one day a year. It was a big deal, thick and laced with Bourbon,” Earles said. “On New Year’s Day, the house was filled with family and friends. And my young cousins and I spent a lot of time trying to sneak into the dining room for a taste of the forbidden spiked eggnog.”
The family recipe was elusive. But the tradition endured. Raising a family of her own, she clipped an eggnog recipe she liked from a magazine. “And eggnog continued as a tradition in my family for many years,” Earles said.
And now, with the resurgence of mixed drinks (and what is punch if not one big communal cocktail?), we say it’s time for those prone to bypassing the punch bowl to take one more turn at the ladle.
You might start with an eggnog recipe developed by Gale Gand, pastry chef and co-owner of Tru. It bypasses fresh eggs and offers a quick approach to transforming prepared eggnog into a glamorous indulgence.
“I was looking for a way to lighten eggnog and make it a refreshing drink for a party,” Gand said. Pairing the eggnog with apple juice is a nod to the past that she discovered while researching old recipes that combined beaten eggs with cider or ale. (If you want to start from scratch, see the eggnog article on this page.)
Ingvar Wikstrom remembers watching his mother prepare glogg long ago in their farmhouse kitchen in Ingelstorp, Sweden.
“We like glogg for several reasons,” said Wikstrom, who owns Wikstrom’s Delicatessen in Andersonville. “It’s old-fashioned. It’s a good way to make the house smell good at Christmastime. And it’s a good way to warm up when going out into the cold.”
Another classic, wassail (a punch owing its name to an old Anglo-Saxon toast “was hal,” or “good health”), also fills the house with tantalizing aromas. Mimi Sheraton describes wassail vessels as originating as large communal drinking cups in her book, “Visions of Sugarplums.” Forms of the word “wassail” can describe a bowl, the beverage or even the person carrying the bowl.
“Those who could not afford to make their own wassail carried wooden bowls through the streets while singing Christmas carols,” she wrote. (As in “Here We Come a Wassailing.”) Appreciative listeners paid wassailers by filling their empty bowls with punch.
Modern punch can be served out of trendy punch bowls, such as those sold in upscale catalogs, or vintage versions. (A recent eBay search turned up 895 punch bowls.) But if you don’t have one, any large bowl or even a large pitcher will suffice.
The larger question–making punches relevant for today–is a mission tackled by Christopher Kimball in his new book, “The Kitchen Detective” (America’s Test Kitchen, $24.95).
“The problem with latter-day punches is that they are either intolerably sweet, boozy or just plain overbearing,” he writes. His solution blends stronger-flavored orange and pineapple juice balanced with a delicate white cranberry juice.
Rum is optional in the mango citrus splash created in the Tribune test kitchen. It earned an impressive approval: “something I’d be happy to serve at a party” and “light and refreshing,” said tasters who described themselves as not overly fond of punch. Like the others, this punch offers a less-stressful way to serve beverages at holiday get-togethers.
This week, as we scramble to complete year-end errands before 2003 turns into last year, “less-stressful” becomes a precious commodity. The ease of punch offers the chance to spend more time communing with family and friends at this year’s open houses, family gatherings, Kwanzaa celebrations, New Year’s blowouts or New Year’s Day buffets.
When good punch happens to good people, it is worth a heartfelt toast: “Cheers!”
– – –
‘You know from Eastern India came The skill of making punch as did the name And as the name consists of letters five, By five ingredients it is kept alive.’
–Samuel Mather, 1757
Source: “Early American Beverages,” by John Hull Brown
Early American punch and cocktail glossary
Confused over names of punches? Here are some definitions from The Dictionary of American Food and Drink, by John Mariani, and “Early American Beverages,” by John Hull Brown.
Nog: ale
Cobbler: wine, sugar, orange or lemon and pounded ice
Perry: similar to hard cider, but made with fermented pear juice
Shrub: citrus fruit, spices, water, brandy or rum sweetened with sugar
Bounce: same as shrub, but sweetened with brown sugar and strained
Flip: a spiced, sweetened drink of ale and beer served in a mug to which beaten egg and rum is sometimes added
Posset: hot milk, curdled with ale
Toddy: a sweetened mixture of spirit and hot water
Stonewall: cider mixed with rum
Bogus: cold rum mixed with unsweetened beer
Whistle-belly-vengeance: sour homemade beer sweetened with molasses, topped with bread crumbs
— Donna Pierce
Books with punch
Here are books with more ideas to help fill the family punch bowl:
The Ultimate Liquor-Free Drink Guide, by Sharon Tyler Herbst (Broadway Books, $15). More than 325 recipes are here, as well as interesting ideas for garnishes. Alcohol-free recipes include hot tea party punch made with black currant tea, juice, cinnamon and cloves and a ginger beer punch combining fresh ginger and ginger ale. Sangria is one of the recipes using alcohol-free wine.
Drinks Without Alcohol, by Jane Brandt (Workman Publishing, $7.95), offers 200 recipes divided by seasonal entertaining that are “geared for the family or the designated driver.” Winter punch recipes include an orange nog surprise made with eggs, orange juice, ice cream and ginger ale and recipes for big crowds.
— D.P.
Glogg
Preparation time: 5 minutes
Cooking time: 2 hours
Standing time: 8 hours
Yield: 20 servings
This is a personal recipe from Ingvar Wickstrom, owner of Wickstrom’s Deli on Clark Street. During the holidays, he serves a non-alcoholic version to customers in his Andersonville shop.
4 cups water
2 cinnamon sticks
5 cardamom pods, crushed
5 whole cloves
1 orange peel, dried, or 3 tablespoons dried minced orange peel
1 1/2 cups raisins
4 cups port wine
1 cup brandy or rum
1. Combine all ingredients except wine and rum in large pot; heat to boiling. Reduce heat to simmer; cook 2 hours. Let stand at least 8 hours.
2. Strain mixture; add wine and brandy.
Nutrition information per serving:
98 calories, 0% of calories from fat, 0 g fat, 0 g saturated fat, 0 mg cholesterol, 5 g carbohydrates, 0 g protein, 6 mg sodium, 0 g fiber
Eggnog punch with cranberry ice cubes
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Freezing time: Overnight
Yield: 15 servings
Adapted from a recipe that pastry chef Gale Gand of Tru created for Oberweis Dairy.
1 can (16 ounces) whole berry cranberry sauce
1/2 gallon prepared eggnog
1/2 bottle (375 milliliters) sparkling non-alcoholic apple cider
3/4 cup spiced dark rum, optional
1. Mix cranberry sauce and 2 cups of the eggnog in a blender; process until smooth. Pour into ice cube trays or a small ring mold; freeze overnight.
2. Combine remaining eggnog and sparkling cider in a large punch bowl; add rum. Float the ice cubes or frozen cranberry ring.
Nutrition information per serving:
238 calories, 38% of calories from fat, 10 g fat, 6 g saturated fat, 80 mg cholesterol, 33 g carbohydrates, 5 g protein, 82 mg sodium, 0.4 g fiber
Cider wassail
Preparation time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 1 hour
Yield: 8 servings
From “Christmas 101,” by Rick Rodgers. To replace alcohol, substitute an additional quart of apple juice for the ale.
2 Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored, cut into 8 wedges
2 lemons
4 thin slices ginger root
12 allspice berries
6 whole cloves
2 cinnamon sticks
4 bottles (12 ounces each) pale ale
1 quart apple cider
1/2 cup lightly packed light brown sugar
1. Heat oven to 400 degrees. Spread apples on a lightly oiled baking sheet. Bake 15 minutes; turn apple slices. Bake until the apples are lightly browned and tender, 15 minutes; set aside.
2. Meanwhile, remove the zest from 1 of the lemons with a zester or vegetable peeler. Rinse and wring out a 12-inch square piece of cheesecloth. Wrap the lemon zest, ginger, allspice, cloves and cinnamon sticks in the cheesecloth. Tie with a piece of kitchen string. Cut the lemons in half; squeeze the juice from the lemons. Set the juice aside.
3. Combine the ale, cider, brown sugar, lemon juice and spice packet in a non-aluminum pot. Heat over low heat, stirring occasionally, until hot but not boiling, about 30 minutes. Pour into cups; garnish with apple slices.
Nutrition information per serving:
157 calories, 0% of calories from fat, 0 g fat, 0 g saturated fat, 0 mg cholesterol, 33 g carbohydrates, 0.5 g protein, 20 mg sodium, 0 g fiber
Quick cranberry holiday punch
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Chilling time: 2 hours
Yield: 12 servings
Adapted from a recipe by Christopher Kimball in “The Kitchen Detective.”
1 bottle (64 ounces) white cranberry juice
3/4 to 1 cup dark rum or Bourbon, or a combination of the two
3/4 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
1/4 cup pineapple juice
1/4 cup orange liqueur such as Cointreau or Triple Sec
1 teaspoon grenadine
Mix all ingredients together in a large bowl or pitcher. Refrigerate at least 2 hours.
Nutrition information per serving:
137 calories, 1% of calories from fat, 0.2 g fat, 0 g saturated fat, 0 mg cholesterol, 26 g carbohydrates, 0 g protein, 4 mg sodium, 0.2 g fiber
Mango citrus splash
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Yield: 20 servings
Developed in the Tribune test kitchen.
1 cup pineapple juice, chilled
1 mango, peeled, pitted, diced
2 cups each, chilled: ginger ale, apple juice
1 cup orange juice, chilled
1/2 cup light rum, optional
1 grapefruit, peeled, pith removed, separated into segments
20 fresh cherries, stem on, pitted, see note, or orange slices
Puree the pineapple juice and mango in a blender until smooth, about 3 minutes; pour through a strainer into punch bowl. Stir in ginger ale and juices. Stir in rum; garnish with grapefruit segments and cherries.
Note: To save the stem on the cherry while pitting, push the pit out through the side with a cherry pitter or straw.
Nutrition information per serving:
43 calories, 3% of calories from fat, 0.1 g fat, 0 g saturated fat, 0 mg cholesterol, 11 g carbohydrates, 0.4 g protein, 3 mg sodium, 0.6 g fiber
The new eggnog
There’s good news for those who avoid old-fashioned eggnog recipes because of concerns over food-borne illness from salmonella in uncooked eggs.
Pasteurized eggs now are available in cartons in most supermarkets. These are eggs in the shell that have been heated to a temperature to kill bacteria without cooking the eggs. You also can replace eggs with egg substitutes, available in the supermarket dairy case.
This recipe, adapted from “The Colonial Williamsburg Tavern Cookbook,” by The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, makes a traditional rich eggnog.
— D.P.
Colonial eggnog
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Chilling time: 4 hours
Yield: 12 servings
6 large pasteurized eggs, at room temperature, separated
1/2 cup sugar
2 cups whipping cream
1 cup milk
1/2 cup each: Bourbon, brandy
1/4 cup light or dark rum, optional
Freshly grated nutmeg
1. Beat the egg yolks with the sugar in bowl of electric mixer until thick, about 6 minutes. Gradually add the cream, milk, Bourbon, brandy and rum. Chill at least 2 hours.
2. Beat the egg whites in clean bowl of electric mixer until stiff peaks form, about 4 minutes. Fold the whites into the cream mixture. Refrigerate until well chilled, at least 2 hours. Sprinkle with nutmeg before serving.
Nutrition information per serving:
259 calories, 60% of calories from fat, 17 g fat, 10 g saturated fat, 162 mg cholesterol, 11 g carbohydrates, 4.6 g protein, 57 mg sodium, 0 g fiber
