Bring in the New Year with Fish House Punch

By Leslie Kedash

As a child, it seemed like my parents had a lot of books. We moved more often than I would have liked, but in each new home, a special place was found to house that ever growing collection. I remember being fascinated by the leather binding, gilt titles and eventually, the type design on each cover.

Today’s recipe comes from that collection via a book called Here’s How, a cookbook of mixed drinks published in 1941. The book always intrigued me, more for its wood cover, metal hinges and leather binding than the illicit concoctions listed inside. fishhousepunch

While the book has recipes for hundreds of cocktails, many long since faded away, one that caught my eye is Fish House Punch. With a name like that, some digging was in order. The date of origin of this potent brew is debated but here are two versions extracted from Wikipedia:

This most venerable of American flowing bowls is held to have been first concocted in 1732 at Philadelphia’s fishing club, the Schuylkill Fishing Company also known as the ‘Fish House.’ The Fish House was an august gentleman’s society devoted to escaping domestic tribulation, but also to cigars, whiskey and the occasional fishing foray upon the Chesapeake or the Restigouche River in Nova Scotia.

Another version states that it was created in 1848 by Shippen Willing of Philadelphia, to celebrate the momentous occasion of women being allowed into the premises of the ‘Fish House” for the first time in order to enliven the annual Christmas Party. It was supposed to be just something to please the ladies’ palate but get them livelier than is their usual wont.

The drink even has its own poem:

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.

The Cook (1885)

Original Fish House Punch Recipe-
submitted by a descendant of Shipping Willing

A decent batch consists of:

30 limes, cut in half and squeezed, such pulp as gets through is fine

15 lemons, treat as above

This constitutes a “part” for measuring the rest of the ingredients:

1 part dark rum

2 parts light rum… Use a reasonable quality, these are friends you will be poisoning so treat them well

1 part brandy

1 part brown sugar

1 part water, in the form of a block of ice

Put sugar into a suitable container that has a tight lid. Gently work the citrus into the sugar until wetted out and then add the rest of the ingredients.

Ease the ice into the container gently as we do not want to waste any of this precious stuff! Gently “bail” the mix over the ice, cap it and repeat this every couple of hours until time to serve it.

This is the most important part: do the preparation and mixing early in the morning the day of the party and mix the ingredients every few hours to “mellow” them together into what will be a most refreshing punch. It is most proper to sample the batch each time it is mixed, to monitor the manner in which the materials are melding together.