Punch: The Delights (and Dangers) of the Flowing Bowl [Hardcover]

David Wondrich (Author)

Book Description

Release date: November 2, 2010

An Authoritative, historically informed tribute to the punch bowl, by the James Beard Award-winning author of Imbibe!.

Replete with historical anecdotes, expert observations, notes on technique and ingredients, and of course world-class recipes, Punch will take readers on a celebratory journey into the punch bowl that starts with some very lonely British sailors and swells to include a cast of lords and ladies, admirals, kings, presidents, poets, pirates, novelists, spies, and other colorful characters.

It is a tale only David Wondrich can tell-and it is sure to delight, amuse, and inspire the mixologist and party-planner in everyone.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Wildly entertaining and fantastically instructive..."
-Bookforum

"Most punches have fascinating back stories - at least they do when Wondrich is in charge."
-The New York Times Book Review

"Mr. Wondrich's noble effort to restore Punch's good name offers sound advice on the basics of Punch-making along with a variety of vintage recipes."
-The Wall Street Journal

"A lively, fascinating history of punch[...]. Wondrich is a tremendously witty writer."
-The New Yorker

"Wondrich peels punch's image off the sticky fraternity house floor and reinstates it into the more dignified annals of drinking tradition."
-The Boston Globe

"It's fair to say there's nobody in the country who knows more about drinking than David Wondrich."
-New York Magazine

"Punch stays true to the antique, but by no means staid, spirit of its old timey, black-and-white-etching-illustrated subject matter, while somehow managing to keep current, relevant, and fresh. [...] A rollickingly fun read."
-TheKitchn.com

"[Wondrich's] interest in history runs as deep as his thirst for beverage experiences on the banks of the mainstream[...]."
-The New York Times

"Punch lovers are in luck[...]. These aren't the fruity, simplistic punches of recent times. They're complex, subtle concoctions...."
-The Oregonian

"The best part of the book isn't the history-it's the 40-plus detailed recipes of how to make your very own authentic Punch."
-The New York Post

About the Author

David Wondrich is one of the world’s foremost authorities on cocktails and their history. A contributing editor at Esquire and at Wine and Spirits, he has also written for numerous other publications on the subject, including the New York Times, Saveur, Real Simple, and Drinks. Dr. Wondrich holds a Ph.D. in comparative literature, and is a founding member of The Museum of the American Cocktail and a partner in Beverage Alcohol Resource, the world’s first advanced education program in spirits and cocktails. He lives in Brooklyn, New York, with his wife and daughter.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Perigee Trade; First Edition edition (November 2, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0399536167
• ISBN-13: 978-0399536168
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.9 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #78,910 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #60 in Books > Cookbooks, Food & Wine > Drinks & Beverages > Bartending

More About the Author

David Wondrich was born on the banks of the Monongahela and raised mostly in suburban New York City. After working as a house painter, a mattress stuffer, messenger, clerk and process server for a mob lawyer, bass player in more bands than he can count and a dozen other things, he settled down and earned a doctorate in Comparative Literature, specializing in Latin scientific poetry. That led to a job as an English professor, which he didn't like. What he did like was writing about jazz and ragtime for the Village Voice and the New York Times and about cocktails for Esquire, a job he began in 1999 and is still happily performing today. Imbibe, his 2007 tribute to Professor Jerry Thomas, has become an essential text for bartenders and cocktail geeks alike. It is the first cocktail book to win a James Beard award. Punch, his 2010 follow-up, has helped refill the flowing bowl around the world. At present he is hard at work on a big, thick reference book.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 37 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Proselytizing for the Return of an Alcoholic Classic November 7, 2010

By R. Hardy HALL OF FAMETOP 500 REVIEWER

Format:Hardcover

I am a strict and fervent teetotaler, so I might be the wrong person to review _Punch: The Delights (and Dangers) of the Flowing Bowl_ (Perigee) by David Wondrich. True, I am never going to sample any of the many and curious recipes which Wondrich has provided, but although his book is partly a how-to guide about making and enjoying punch, it is also a history of a drink that has a has a lot of international relations connected to it. Punch also (and this is why the book's subject interested me) shows up in a lot of the old books I like to read. Wondrich, who has published often about mixing drinks (he counts himself among the fraternity of mixologists), is an amusing writer who has done plenty of research about a subject he obviously loves. He calls punch the first globally popular mixed drink, the grandfather of them all, and says that until this book came out, the recipes for different sorts of punches have never been collected. He has plenty of historical notes about who was making punch and of what ingredients, and while he refers to its being part of say, Dickens and Austen. So you don't have to enjoy punch to enjoy _Punch_.

It is significant that the etymology of "punch" is traced to Hindi. It may be that punch was an Indian drink that members of the English East India Company's trading posts in South Asia adopted. Wondrich, however, makes the case that British expatriates, especially sailors, far from home may have been taking the best available local ingredients and combining them in pleasing ways. Central to such punches was the distillate called "arrack," a generic term for an Indian brew that may have been made for two thousand years. Sailors drank plenty of punch, and sailed the world over, again using whatever was available.... Thus there were rum punches to be had in the West Indies. Americans used rum, of course, but also whiskey. In England, brandy was often the foundation. These liquors are expensive, as could be the sugar, fruit, and spices added to the brew, so punch was a rich person's drink, or was otherwise used for really special occasions. There is always a force for economy, however, and gin began to be used for punch when the gin craze struck. Dickens loved punch, and he loved making it, assembling his ingredients and theatrically combining them, all the while commenting to those gathered around for the libation on his technique and his progress toward the finished bowl. It must have made them all pleasantly thirsty for the final product! His recipe is here. Wondrich tends to give the original recipes in their own sometimes archaic language, and then suggests how moderns might approximate them. For Dickens's punch, Wondrich can even recommend the particular brand of cognac which Dickens kept in his cellar. The way Dickens made punch is the sort of ritual that Wondrich would like to see brought back, and he does his share in bringing it back. "The ritual of the Punch bowl," he writes, "had been a secular communion, welding a group of good fellows together into a temporary sodality whose values superseded all others - or, in plain English, a group of men gathered around a bowl of Punch could be pretty much counted on to see it to the end, come what may." The "Bombay Presidency Punch," however, was described in 1676 as involving its consumers in "besotting themselves with drunkenness" leading to quarreling and dueling. (Hogarth's funny and squalid _Modern Midnight Conversation_ showing debauchees around a punchbowl is the book's cover.) "I haven't seen any dueling yet when I've trotted out this formula," Wondrich explains, "but there's been an argument or two, and no end of blaspheming."

Blasphemy or no, Wondrich is interested in bringing back the lost elegance of punch-making and punch-drinking. Punch takes time to prepare (it is no surprise that Wondrich allies himself with the "slow food" movement), and if you use, say, cognac, it might cost around eighty bucks for a bowl. "Punch matters," he says. "Punch has heft." It's a convincing case, and you will find here many surprising details about how to test it. You will find a recipe for Meriton Latroon's Bantam Punch, which included "amber-grease," or ambergris. This substance, a product of whale peristalsis, is the subject of some of the funniest chapters in _Moby Dick_, and Wondrich will tell you where to get some, if you have the money. Admiral Russell's Punch was originally made in so many hogsheads that a little boy in a little boat sailed on the punch sea, ladling it out for onlookers. Wondrich's adjusted recipe is notated thus: "Yield: 18 cups. To make full scale, multiply all quantities by 700." There is Punch Jelly, which shows that Jell-O shots actually date back to at least 1862, the date of the recipe here. It is all historically fascinating, and written with a perfect light and amusing tone. Wondrich will surely convince some to give punch a serious try, even if they are members of a generation that knows only the application of "the technologies of miniaturization and just-in-time production to the process" of mixed-drink making. And for me, someone pass the orange juice. Read more ›

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars More Wondrich July 1, 2011

By Kevin B. Hill

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

I was already a fan of Wondrich's previous book "Imbibe", and was pleasantly surprised when I had learned of his follow-up entry "Punch". If you are the curious type, as I am, you'll be delighted to learn more about this niche of history, and with a little bit of preparation, and Mr. Wondrich's help you can taste the beverages that our forefathers enjoyed when they wanted to relax. This book is not only a translation of bygone recipes to modern equivalent of ingredients and measures, it also gives the back-story, and puts the drinks into the context of the period. I couldn't recommend any of David Wondrich's books any higher, as I find myself coming back rereading sections of them again and again.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Read January 2, 2011

By Todd K. Hattabaugh

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

I heard about this book listening to NPR and was intrigued. After reading the book, I can hardly wait to try some of these recipes. Our superbowl party will include some punch bowls as well! The history aspects of the beverages was quite entertaining.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars great book! February 25, 2013

By Javi Cocktails

Format:Hardcover

This is a great book! Full of knowledge and stories of cocktails and punches from tge past. Any serious bar man should have his own copy!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Punch a well mixed beverage tome. October 10, 2012

By alamode

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

For your beverage shelf in your kitchen bookcase:

Communal beverages are no longer popular but for a couple of centuries they were the thing. This is a well written and well researched book on Punch drinks. Bought on a whim since I enjoyed the punch episode of Good Eats, this is an odd, charming and fun book and perfect for when you are stuck somewhere and need to be self-entertained (car crap, doctor crap,airport). It's engrossing to the point you won't mind being whether you'd rather not be. Clearly not as essential as the Trader Vic's Bartender's Guide but better than most beverage tomes. Tempted to make a big bowl of something for the holidays and place our car keys in the lock box.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Any culinary collection will find this a lively, fun survey February 13, 2011

By Midwest Book Review

Format:Hardcover

PUNCH: THE DELIGHTS AND DANGERS OF THE FLOWING BOWL provides a fun history of the punch bowl, blending recipes with humor and history into how punch was first developed for entertaining. From the creation of the first distilled spirits to punch's appearance in Europe and its evolution to become a party drink, this offers a fun and quirky history paired with recipes that are packed with flavor and fun. Any culinary collection will find this a lively, fun survey.