Philadelphia Fish House Punch

Before the cocktail, there was punch.

There was an age where people had plenty of free time (unfathomable in this day and age). In those halcyon days, that free time translated into sitting around in the local watering hole and enjoy a nice sip of cold punch, scooped from a gargantuan bowl.  Naturally, as long as there was punch in the bowl, no one would  even consider stopping their drinking, leading to a general state of revelry and good times.     

Sadly, those days passed almost two centuries ago, in the mid 1800s. With the onset of the industrial revolution and the stiffness of Victorian mores,  the time of leisurely punch drinking was at an end. People had places to be, work to do, and people to (not) see. There simply wasn’t enough time to sit  and- out of necessity, the cocktail was born. The punch slowly faded from the public conciousness, until, like Boris Karloff, it was resurrected as a Frankenstein’s monster in the modern age. 

The original punches bear only a passing resemblance to the over-sweet, artificial tasting red soft drink that most of us are familiar with. A quick jaunt into history tells us why; the term “punch” originates from the Hindi word “paanch”, which means five. Not coincidentally, the original punches, brought back by British sailors from India, had five main components balanced together- as the  old rhyme below goes…

“One of sour, two of sweet. Three of strong and four of weak. A dash of bitters and a sprinkle of spice, serves well chilled with plenty of ice.” 

Even if the exact proportions were somewhat different when it came to individual punches, they usually were a combination of fruit juice, sugar, spirit, water, and a bitters and spice mixture. This was no fluke; the sailors of the East India Company travelling across the continents would find these ingredients easy to obtain. Spirits kept much better than beer or wine. Fruit juice, particular citrus,  was a key ingredient in warding off scurvy on those long voyages. Sugar, bitters and spice were common in Asia.  In fact,  the earliest discovered punch recipe was scribed in 1638 by a German fellow,  Johan Albrecht de Mandelslo, when visiting the East India Company in India.  This particular recipe contained “aqua vitae, rosewater, citrus juice and sugar“.

Undoubtedly, the sailors were not so selfish as to keep a good thing to themselves, and the punch was in fashion by the 1700s among all layers of British society. This fashion travelled across a  very different ocean, the Atlantic, and the Americans (still British at this point) also enjoyed a great bowl of punch. Even after the former colonists formed their own country, punch was still popular; the  Founding Fathers of America reportedly celebrated the signing of the Declaration of Independence with 76 bowls of punch (not coincidentally, the declaration was signed in 1776). 

And that brings us to the Philadelphia Fish House Punch. 

In 1732, a number of enterprising Philadelphia luminaries founded the State in Schuylkill Fishing Corporation, named after the river on whose banks its clubhouse was located, the Schuykill.  Contrary to what its name might suggest, this was not so much a  pack of hard-nosed businessmen  as it was a collection of people who liked to fish, smoke, and drink. One of those people was a somewhat famous man named George Washington, who, history suggests, enjoyed a few tipples of the club’s signature punch.   By 1744, William Black, the secretary of an embassy of Virginia Commissioners, wrote of his reception at Schuykill, where he was “very kindly and welcomed . . . into their Province with a Bowl of fine Lemon Punch big enough to have Swimmed half a dozen of young Geese”. 

Perhaps in part due to its pedigree, the Philadelphia Fish House Punch was soon wrought large in the public conciousness.  When the first celebrity bartender, “Professor” Jerry Thomas, published How to Mix Drinks, or The Bon-Vivant’s Companion,  he was hardly the first to do so. Funnily enough,  the actual recipe was supposedly only handed down from generation to generation of club members, so we are left to wonder if this was the actual recipe. The members of the State in Schuykill Fishing Corporation might know (the club is still around today), but they’re certainly not telling,  

Whatever it is,  in the modern day, we are left with our best guess of the actual recipe…and there are many best guesses. I found more than ten different recipe for this punch, some including mint, tea or maraschino liqueur(!). I can see why; the drink is a refreshing, tasty drink that is perfect for any large gathering of discerning (and not-discerning) drinkers, and everyone wants to recreate what they think is the perfect recipe.

That said , my favourite version is Jeffrey Morgenthaler’s, which I really like. I’ve tweaked it slightly to reduce a bit of the sourness and to have a stronger presence of the Jamaican rum. It should comfortably serve 10 to 12 guests.

I always wonder why punches went out of fashion. This is perfect when organising a large party. It cuts down the amount of work needed to prepare individual drinks, allows everyone to drink as much as they want, and makes for a nice display piece.  Beware though, the punch packs… a punch. Don’t be tempted to gulp it all down at once- savour it over fine conversation instead.

Something so simple to make shouldn’t be so tasty, but it is.  Fortunately, in the drinking renaissance, we too can party like it’s still 1776.  Perhaps during the upcoming Chinese New Year?