David Wondrich: Imbibe!

I'm 100 pages in to David Wondrich's wonderful Imbibe! this weekend, and I'm loving the drink recipes (of course) but also the history, the lore, the stories behind the drinks.

For instance, from the history behind the Philadelphia Fish-House Punch, in describing the Colony of Schuylkill, a private club started in the early eighteen-hundreds that would meet weekly to, well, eat and drink:

Every other Wednesday from May to October, year in and year out for more than two hundred years [they] ... would gather to execute the club's business. ... That "business"? Eating and drinking and precious little else. But what set the State in Shuylkill apart from other rich-people's clubs is that its "citizens" traditionally did all the work. There was no staff to do the marketing, sweep out the Castle, gut the fish (the Coroner did that), build the fire, plank the shad, truss the pig, grill the steaks, or brew the Punch. All pitched in, each according to his abilities, the citizens instructing the apprentices. And when guests came (each member was allowed one), the pitched in, too. In 1825, Marquis de Lafayette turned steaks on the grill. I don't know what they had George Washington doing when he visited in 1787, but rumor has it that in 1882 Chester Arthur--the only other sitting president to be a guest--donned an apron and shelled peas.

Comments

[AlchemistGeorge]

Its a great book, isn't it? And FWIW, Fish House Punch is terrific stuff. The recipe I use turns out to be only about 20% alcohol, but people just can't stop drinking it .... next time I make it I'll add the 'making the oleo-sacchrum' step he describes.

I've heard of people aging this stuff for up to a year before drinking it, I'm trying to find someone who has done this to find out how it affects the taste. I read one fellow - the Ninja Priest - whose family puts the juiced lemon shells into the mix to age for up to a week - I'd think at some point the alcohol would extract the bitter from the piths ....