LOUISIANA SUGAR HOUSE PUNCH

1 qt. sugar water
Whiskey or brandy
Juice of sour oranges

To one quart of boiling syrup taken from the kettles, add whiskey or brandy to suit the patient. Flavor with the juice of sour oranges.

From The Bon-Vivant's Companion by Jerry Thomas, 1862

Comment: Jerry Thomas notes this is "From a recipe in the possession of Col. T. B. Thorpe", author and illustrator for New York magazines in the 1860s. The note about "boiling syrup taken from the kettles," combined with the fact that the name of the recipe includes "Louisiana," suggests that this was first made by people in the sugar-cane processing business. The "syrup" was presumably the earliest stage of processing of the juice squeezed from the cane, but just how sweet that would be is unclear.

The one use for which alcohol was accepted by even the most hectoring moralists was as medicine, explaining the phrasing advising adding booze "to suit the patient."

Return to Recipe Index