While we often think of “punch” these days as something non-alcoholic to serve, in Regency England punch was a drink to get you more than a little tipsy.
The first mention of punch was recorded in 1632, but the roots go much further back to wassail, and also to mulled wine or brandy (the word “mull” meaning ground, as in ground up spices you might add). In the late 1600s, Jamaican rum might be added to a punch.
Punch houses in England began to open, along with that new import coffee for coffee houses, and in 1731 John Ashley opened the London Coffee and Punch House near St. Paul’s Cathedral on Ludgate Hill. The Daily Post-Boy described it as having “…the finest and best old Arrack, Rum and French Brandy…made into Punch…” The artist Thomes Worlidge noted he enjoyed a drink in the punch house from “…a Mrs. Gaywood, their bar-keeper” since it was more common for women to serve drinks. Ashley seems to have made a success by reducing the price for punch from 8/ (8 shillings) for a quart of arrack made into punch and 6/ (6 shillings) for a punch of brandy or rum to only 6/4 (6 shillings, 4 pence). For just a glass of punch, he charged 3 to 4 and a half pence.
The word punch is believed to have come into English through the old Hindustani word paanstch meaning ‘five’, implying a large beverage concocted from five key elements – sweet, sour, alcohol, water and spice. But some hold that punch comes from puncheon, meaning either a large cask or a took for working on stone, which would come to give us punch holes, or punch a person meaning to hit someone. What all this means is that the idea of making up a punch arrived in England via sailors, and heating the drink made it a very welcome beverage to have on a cold day.
The punch bowl came into being to mix and serve the punch, and numerous satirical prints from the Regency show how a strong punch often meant excessive fun and wild behavior, with a sore head the next day.
The Boke of Housekeeping, published in 1707 by Katherine Windham gives this recipe to “make ye best punch”: “Put 1½ a pound of sugar in a quart of water, stir it well yn put in a pint of Brandy, a quarter of a pint of Lime Juice, & a nutmeg grated, yn put in yr tosts or Biskets well toasted.” It was common to add in or serve biscuits (a dry and not too sweet cookie) with punch.
John Nott published a recipe for “Punch Royal” in the 1723 The Cook’s and Confectioners’ Dictionary: Take three pints of the best brandy, as much spring-water, a pint or better of the best lime-juice, a pound of double refined sugar.
The citrus was an important part of the punch, but nutmeg was often added, although that was an expensive spice. As punch became part of the English culture, new versions came into being.
The “flip” was meant to be served hot and used brandy, sweet wine, whole egg, cream, nutmeg, and was heated with a red-hot iron (not a poker, but a specific tool called a flipdog, hottle or toddy rod. The heat added a froth to the drink and gave it a slightly burnt taste that most people liked. A hot ale flip might be made with beer, rum, and sugar, and then heated with the toddy rod.
Maria Rundell’s book Domestic Cookery gives a recipe for milk punch, a common punch in the Regency, and two other punches of the Regency were Negus and smoking bishop.
It is said that Negus got its name from Colonel Francis Negus who invented the punch prior to his death in 1732. It is made with wine, usually a dry port or sherry, citrus, sugar and nutmeg, all thinned with a little hot water.
The “smoking bishop” gets its name from the oranges used—Seville oranges, the same often used for marmalade, are preferred—which are roasted until the skin blackens, and the bishop referrers to various orders within the Catholic church. The idea is that the use of claret gives you a bishop, port a cardinal, and champagne a pope. Other variations say it is an archbishop if made with claret, a beadle if made with ginger wine and raisins, a cardinal if made with Champagne or Rhine wine, and a pope if made with burgundy. No doubt it was made to one’s own taste. The main thing was that it included oranges. Johathan Swift wrote in the 1700s: “Fine oranges well roasted with sugar and wine in a cup, they’ll make a sweet Bishop when gentlefolk sup.”
Wine also might be mulled, meaning heated, with spices added, and the more ancient drink for wassail was usually a mix of cider, ale and mead, with spices and possibly slices of crab apples.
Punch bowls were often a source of pride and showing off wealth. They might be made of Delft, or other expensive China, with a spoon for serving, and quite valuable, or it might be of silver plate. Goose egg ladles, named for the shape of the ladle, came in during the late 1700s. At inns, the punch bowl was often simply metal or of local ceramics. The glass punch bowl would start to come in around the 1830s.
Punch bowls were sometimes made to commemorate special events, and might be decorated with the names of guilds or societies that served up punch. In the 1750s, punch also began to be served from porcelain and earthenware punch-pots, which looked like very large teapots and allowed punch to be poured into cups to be served.
In the 1700s, and on into the 1800s, punch was the drink of social occasions—it was a great way to extend drink to many. At clubs, in taverns, or in punch-houses, men would “take a bowl” of punch. In the Regency, punch would be served at private balls—such as the Weston’s ball in Jane Austen’s Emma—and at public assemblies.
As noted in Georgette Heyer’s Regency World by Jennifer Kloester: “The arrack-punch served at Vauxhall Gardens was drunk by both men and women, despite a reputation for potency. It was said to have been made from the grains of the Benjamin flower mixed with rum and was freely imbibed on gala nights. Some men preferred to mix their own punch as Freddy did in Cotillion and rum punch (rum, lemon, arrack and sugar), Regent’s punch (various fruits, rum, brandy, hock, Curaçao, Madeira and champagne) and Negus (port, lemon, sugar and spices) were popular brews.” The arrack sold at Vauxhall is listed at 12/ per quart in 1823, and given that a laborer might only earn 10/ per week, that means it was quite expensive—but only the well-to-do went to Vauxhall. Beer estimates were for as little as 2d (twopence) per quart. Porter was 5 and a half pence per quart in 1819. Some establishments might serve gin, coffee, or beer for a penny a glass, but the cost of punch would vary based on how many ingredients went into it and the quality of the drink.
For more recipes and information, David Wondrich’s book, Punch: The Delights (and Dangers) of the Flowing Bowl, features 40 historical recipes along with stories about the development of punch.
Making the Regent Punch (named for the Prince Regency, who was very fond of punch), which is noted as: Two bottles of Madeira, three of champagne, one of Curaçao and hock, one pint of rum, one quart of brandy, four pounds of oranges, lemons and raisins sweetened with sugar, two bottles of seltzer water. All this could be diluted with green tea, if one wished.
For more information:
Making a Regency Wassail Punch (video included)
Making a Smoking Bishop
Maria Rundell’s Domestic Cookery (book on Archive.org)
Article by Shannon Donnelly for The Quizzing Glass blog and The Regency Reader.