Punches&Cups

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PUNCHES & CUPS

BRANDY PUNCH

½ wineglass brandy

1 wineglass water

1 tablespoon raspberry syrup

2 tablespoon white sugar

2 slices of lemon

2 slices of orange

Serve in a tumbler filled with shaved ice.

THE GENERAL

1 bottle of good claret

1 bottle of champagne "brut"

½ pint soda-water

½ pint brandy

½ bottle orange Curacao

Chill all the ingredients well before mixing. Mix just before serving. This old army recipe also suggests that "a tankard of porter may be added to give more body."

HUNGERFORD PARK

3 good-flavoured apples

1 lemon

3 bottles of ginger-beer

½ pint of sherry

2 1/4 pints of draught ale

loaf sugar

grated nutmeg

Cut the apples into slices. Put them into a jug; add the peel and juice of one lemon, a very little grated nutmeg, the ginger-beer, sherry and ale. Sweeten to taste, stir a little to melt the sugar. Serve well chilled.

PEABODY PUNCH

1 bottle best Jamaica rum

6 wineglasses cognac

3 wineglasses Madeira

1 dozen large limes (or 2 dozen small ones)

1 jar guava jelly

1 pint green tea

sugar to taste

Rub sugar on limes until essential oil is diffused into the sugar. Dissolve the sugar in the tea. Then cut the limes, squeeze, and add their juice to the tea. Dissolve the guava jelly in a pint of boiling water. Mix all these until you get the right sweetness; then add the rum, cognac, and Madeira. The punch should stand for at least 12 hours or more. Float a large lump of ice in the punch for an hour before serving, to chill and dilute. The recipe suggests any left-over punch be bottled for future occasion as "its pleasantness improves with age."

PIMM'S CUP

Pimm's may be diluted with ginger ale or fizzy lemonade (Sprite may well be the closest American equivalent). Pimm's is traditionally garnished with cucumber sticks, orange slices and sprigs of borage or mint.

PORT CUP

1 bottle ale

1 bottle porter

1 glass brandy

1 tablespoon ginger syrup

2 tablespoons sugar

Mix all the ingredients together then grate half a nutmeg into it. Put the concoction into the refrigerator for at least half an hour before serving. Just before serving stir a teaspoonful of bicarbonate of soda into it.