Fish-House Punch
Imbibe, David Wondrich
One book I highly recommend to anyone seeking to gain or expand their knowledge and overall appreciation of classic American cocktails is Imbibe, by David Wondrich.
Wondrich does a fantastic job of introducing the reader to various drinks that have emerged throughout the course of American history. In the pages of his book, you get a sense of what the “old world” was like and. In my case at least, I became envious of the lifestyles our predecessors lived.
Imbibe allows you to appreciate the options we have in selecting a cocktail. Not so long ago, drinks were limited by the ingredients available in a given region, whether that be ice, lemons, limes, or the alcohol. How about when straws first came out as a method to protect your teeth? When was the last time you ordered punch at a bar?
Just as well, Imbibe saddens the soul with how perfectly good drinking establishments have degenerated to their present day norm. Select places are able to recreate the spirit within Imbibe, but they’re hard to come by.
A good drink, like a good woman, is not readily forgotten.
There is a specific drink in this book that I am eagerly awaiting to try, though haven’t tried it only by virtue of being a broke law student. The drink I am referring of is called Philadelphia Fish-House Punch. In lieu of a a more proper review, I will let the book speak for itself on this drink:
“Fish-House Punch is thrice blessed. Its name is memorable and strangely alluring, its history is august and eccentric, and its formula is delicious and deadly. The greatest of all American Punches, it deserves to be protected by law, taught in the schools, and made a mandatory part of every Fourth of July celebration, with dilute portions given to those not yet of legal age, so that they may be accustomed to the taste.
The eighteenth-century Englishman was an extremely clubbable fellow. He formed regular social associations at the drop of a tricorn hat. Many were rather informal affairs, a few friends meeting at a set time and place to push the port around a bit and drain a bowl or two of Punch, preferably with a roast to keep body and soul together. Others were a little more eccentric. Take the Colony of Schuylkill, a rod and gun club founded by thirty of William Penn’s followers on the banks of the Schuylkill in 1732, when Americans were still English. First off, they claimed that their little acre of land was an indepenendent colony of its own, complete with governor, secretary of state, assembly, code of laws, coroner, and sheriff… every other Wednesday from May to October [they] would gather to execute the club’s business.
That business? Eating and drinking and precious little else.”
That excerpt should give you a flavor of the author’s writing style. He is very entertaining to read. If you want to know more, I suggest you get the book. I read my copy on the beach this past summer and while the binding has now come undone, presumedly due to salt water intrusion, I wouldn’t change my journey through classic American drinks (beverage in hand, of course) for the world.
If you want the “real” recipe for Fish-House Punch, which is much different than I have found elsewhere on the web (and still probably not the real thing), leave a comment and I will send it to you in exchange for a candid review. Warning, it takes no less than 3 bottles of liquor to make…
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