Fish House Punch


There's a little place just out of town,
Where, if you go to lunch,
They'll make you forget your mother-in-law
With a drink called Fish-House Punch.


So I'm late. The title of this here blog refers to my, speed, my life. And I'm a fairly busy guy, just like Boudreau....

Anyway, feeling stupid that I didn't get my submission in on time for this month's MXMO, and heading over to Bibulo.us, I noticed nobody wrote about Fish House Punch!!! Well well well...

Ted Haigh, aka the wonderful Dr. Cocktail, wrote an evocative piece about Fish House Punch in the September/October edition of Imbibe, so maybe that's why nobody tackled it. Who wants to follow up on Ted Haigh? Me? Not really. For the most part, he nailed it, offering history (the recipe originates in 1732, making it older than the nation itself), personal experience (drinking the punch at a ladies house who eliminated everything but the liquor) and a sense of time and tradition (autumnal rhapsody demands a drink "of ancestors and history").

I don't have that much to add. What I can say is that it is enjoying a healthy renaissance, popping up on cocktail menus around the world (1806, and Death & Co to name two), and that it works as a solo cocktail, too.

Fish House Punch
3/4 oz. dark rum
3/4 oz. Cognac
3/4 oz. peach brandy
1/2 oz. simple syrup
1/4 oz. fresh lime juice
1/2 oz. fresh lemon juice

Shake, strain into ice-filled rocks glass. Garnish with a lime wheel and a single cherry.

I lifted the above recipe from the 2007 edition of the Food & Wine cocktail guide. I've been serving this at Union for over a year now, and the reception has always been favorable. If you'd like to try it as it's meant to be tried, I give you David Wondrich's adaptation from an 1862 recipe by some dude named Jerry Thomas in his recent book Imbibe.

1 pint fresh lemon juice
1 pound Demerara sugar
3 oz. peach brandy
27 oz. cognac
18 oz. rum
3 quarts water

He also gives his own individual serving along with some great backstory at Esquire.

There are some cocktails dredged up and respected simply because of their age and pedigree, and there are some that have withstood the test of time because, well, they're delicious. Fish House Punch falls in the latter category.

12 comments:

keith waldbauer said...

I know, I caught it right away, then decided to leave it and see if you'd correct me : )

And no, I don't want to be busier than you. I can't be the laziest bartender in America if I'm busier than you...

frederic said...

Just curious as to what peach brandy you used? When we made our punch last month, we used Creme de Peche which was somewhat drowned out. The only other options we had in house were RinQuinQuin and Fee's peach bitters.

alchemistgeorge said...

We LOVE this stuff, and we only make it for special occasions. If you put it in a punch bowl, regardless of what you tell people, someone is going to get hammered - like the groom's mother.

We learned about this drink from Paul Harrington (Cocktail, The Drinks Bible for the 21rst Century), and have found it is better as a punch than as a cocktail - one is supposed to let it sit for a few hours for the flavors to merge. I recommend you have extra lemons on hand, depending on the fruit, the quantity in the recipe may not be tart enough to balance the sweet. We use Goslings Dark Rum or a mix of Goslings & Coruba. Until recently we've been unable to get good peach brandy, so we've been used Hiram Walker or Dekuyper.

36 oz dark rum, 24 oz lemon juice, 25 oz brandy, 4 oz peach brandy, .75 lb superfine sugar, 40 oz water.

I've seem mention that some people age this stuff for up to a year at cellar temperature, then they strain it and serve it - I'd love to find someone who has done this and can describe how the flavors change.

Term Papers said...

Fish House Punch: Where is it?and you lifted the above recipe from the 2007 edition of the Food and Wine cocktail guide.That mean you had ate fishes with wine.Its very harm full for health.


Term papers

moving company said...

I love all the stuff. I always prefer to make it only on some special occasion. I am happy that you share it with me. Next week, I am shifting in my new house and surely will surely make it at my new home.

vintage rings said...

Fish House punch drink seems very tasty.I take drink but only on occasions.After reading so many qualities of this drink I reallt want to have it atleast once.Let's see how different it is..

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