Extract the juice from the peeling of one Seville orange and one lemon by rubbing loaf-sugar on them; the juice of six lemons and one Seville orange, one bottle of capillaire, and a quarter of a pound of loaf-sugar. Put the whole into a jug, and when well mixed pour upon it three pints of boiling {111} water. Cover the jug close, and keep it near the fire for a quarter of an hour. Then add three ounces of sweet, and half an ounce of bitter, almonds, blanched and pounded fine in a mortar, and gradually mixed with a bottle of old brandy. Stir well, and it may be used immediately.
Egg Punch.
[Also once a favourite beverage at the universities.]
One quart of cold water, the juice of six lemons and six oranges, four glasses of calves’-feet jelly in a liquid state; stir the whole well together; let it remain covered over for half an hour, then strain through a hair sieve, and add one bottle of capillaire, two glasses of sherry, half a pint of brandy, and one bottle of orange shrub. Put some pulverized sugar and ten fresh hens’ eggs into a bowl, beat them well together, and gradually unite the two mixtures by keeping the eggs well stirred as it is poured in; then whip it with a whisk until a fine froth rises, and if sweet enough it is fit for immediate use.
This punch should be drunk as soon as made, for it will not keep sweet.
Omit the wine and spirits, and freeze the remainder, and a delicious mould of ice may be obtained.
The above can be converted into
Shrub Punch,
of a superior quality, by the simple omission of the eggs.
Details are wanting as to the composition of the {112}
Rack Punch
of which Jos. Sedley partook so freely at Vauxhall, and which put a temporary stop to the carryings-on of the fascinating Miss Sharp with the susceptible Anglo-Indian. Thackeray does not tell us if this was an abbreviation of Arrack Punch. My own idea is that brandy and rum—of inferior quality—entered into it; although, as mentioned in a previous chapter, “rack” is the “Cheshyre Cheese” synonym for gin. But I should be inclined to back arrack. At all events this is one of the component parts of a