A crowd-pleasing 18th-century punch.

Image Credit: Nole Garey for Oh So Beautiful Paper

Fish House Punch dates all the way back to 1732, when a Philadelphia fishing and social club, known as the State in Schuylkill Fishing Corporation, built a clubhouse on the banks of Pennsylvania’s Schuylkill River (pronounced Skoo-kul) and came up with a signature punch.

Online magazine PUNCH describes the club as:

A group of rebellious (and most likely overheated) colonial Americans—fishermen, politicians, and Philadelphians of the like—who founded a pre-Revolution social club called the Schuylkill Fishing Company of Pennsylvania, also known as the State in Schuylkill. Its constituents actually declared the assemblage a sovereign state, and called themselves “citizens.”

Their mission: Fish. Drink. Eat.

The angling club still exists today, and its members still call themselves citizens.

The recipe for Fish House punch has been a carefully guarded secret, handed down through the club, and through the years counterfeit recipes abound. Drinks historian, David Wondrich, notes that the first written reference to Fish House Punch appeared in a 1795 edition of the Philadephia Telegraph.

The spread of the drink was eventually made possible by the 1862 publication of "How to Mix Drinks, or The Bon-Vivant's Companion," written by the celebrated New York bartender Jerry Thomas. This first true bartender's manual included a recipe for "Philadelphia Fish House Punch," similar in every major detail to the recipe in the Telegraph -- a third of a pint of lemon juice, three-quarters of a pound of sugar, 2½ pints of water, half a pint of Cognac, and a quarter pint each of rum and peach-flavored brandy.

It’s hard to say if Thomas had the recipe right, but he did have contact with people who ran in the same circle as the folks who may have had access to the club’s recipe.

In 1905, the New York Times maintained that the "exact ingredients, and their proportions," were still a club secret "handed down from generation to generation." In the article, the Times asserted that "the recipe for the blending never has been revealed, although so-called Fish House punch has been served for years at dinners in different parts of the country."

Despite the variations, a common enough core recipe has been handed down, along with the mystique of this delicious, boozy punch. As David Wondrich proposes, Philadelphia Fish House Punch “deserves to be protected by law, taught in the schools, and made a mandatory part of every Fourth of July celebration.”

Warning! With rum, cognac, and brandy, this punch packs a punch. It’s deceptively easy to drink, so careful not to overdo it! Legend has it President George Washington was also a fan. He was, purportedly, so much of a fan that he couldn’t bring himself to write in his diary for three days after imbibing the stuff.

Despite the silly name, this is one serious drink.

Here’s a little poem you can recite while serving Fish House Punch (so long as you haven’t had one too many):

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

PHILADEPHIA FISH HOUSE PUNCH

A classic punch is served in a punch bowl with a large block of ice. Water or black tea would also be added as needed for dilution during the Colonial era. This modern version opts for chilled black tea, but you could also use seltzer water for a sparkling version. As peach brandy is difficult to source, this recipe uses high-quality peach liqueur instead.

Serves 10

Ingredients:

1.5 cups cognac
1.5 cups aged Jamaican rum
1 cup peach liqueur
1.5 cups lemon juice
3/4 – 1 cup simple syrup (to taste)
2 – 3 cups chilled black tea
Lemon wheels and freshly grated nutmeg, for garnish

Instructions:

Freeze a large ice block. You can create one by filling a large mixing bowl or Bundt pan and freezing it overnight.
Remove the ice block from the freezer and place it in a punch bowl.
Pour all ingredients (syrup and tea to taste) over the ice block and stir to combine. Ladle the punch into glasses and garnish with lemon wheels and freshly grated nutmeg.

RECIPE SOURCE: Moody Mixologist