Punch

A historical recipe from Directions for Cookery, in its Various Branches, by Eliza Leslie (1840).

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A historical recipe

Directions for Cookery, in its Various Branches, by Eliza Leslie (1840). Project Gutenberg eBook #9624.

From an old book: a historical recipe, not current advice. Its methods, additives and storage may be unsafe by today's standards.

Ingredients 3 ingredients

Keep children and pets away from the hob and the oven, and keep oven gloves and a lid within reach.

Boiling water and steam. Turn pan handles inward, away from the edge of the hob. Lift lids away from you, and pour hot water away from your body: steam burns too.

Roll twelve fine lemons under your hand on the table;
then pare off the yellow rind very thin, and boil it in a gallon of water till all the flavour is drawn out.
Break up into a large bowl, two pounds of loaf-sugar, and squeeze the lemons over it.
When the water has boiled sufficiently, strain it from the lemon-peel, and mix it with the lemon juice and sugar.
Stir in a quart of rum or of the best whiskey.
Two scruples of flowers of benjamin, steeped in a quart of rum, will make an infusion which much resembles the arrack of the East Indies.
It should be kept in a bottle, and a little of it will be found to impart a very fine and fragrant flavour to punch made in the usual manner.