Milk Punch is a dairy-based drink dating to the late 1600s and early 1700s, served originally as a true punch, from a bowl for group gatherings. See punch. First recorded in William Sacheverell’s 1688 travelogue of the Scottish isle of Iona, the drink owes its popularization, and possibly its invention, to the playwright and novelist Aphra Behn (1640–1689). The earliest written recipe comes from a 1711 cookbook by Mary Rockett.
Milk Punch in a bowl and in a bottle are different beverages. In the latter, today called clarified Milk Punch, milk is curdled and strained, leaving behind a smooth and stable beverage so popular in mid-eighteenth century England that young Queen Victoria issued a royal warrant to the company of Nathaniel Whisson as “purveyors of milk punch to Her Majesty.” Curdling results through the addition of alcohol or acid, as in a 1763 Benjamin Franklin recipe adding brandy and lemon to hot milk.
The clarification made indefinite storage without refrigeration possible—bottles were found in Charles Dickens’s wine cellar after his death in 1870 (his Mr. Pickwick was thrilled to take “a most energetic pull” on a bottle of it).
In the original punch bowl presentation, the appeal lies in the quality and freshness of the dairy, sometimes a mixture of milk and cream, although Jerry Thomas’s classic 1862 Bar-Tender’s Guide recipe includes white sugar, water, cognac, rum, milk, nutmeg, and ice. By the 1850s, Milk Punches such as this were generally made individually by the glass, not the bowl (they were often given to the infirm, as a gentle and strengthening beverage). In nineteenth-century New Orleans, Bourbon or Brandy Milk Punch was extremely popular; it is still served at numerous bars and restaurants there today.
syllabub.Recipe (Mary Rockett’s Milk Punch): Peel 2 lemons in long spirals, put the peels in 2-liter jar, cover with 1 liter VSOP cognac, seal, and let sit for 24 hours. Add 240 ml white sugar and 90 ml lemon juice and stir until sugar has mostly dissolved. Heat 500 ml whole milk until scalding hot, pour into the cognac mixture, and let curdle. Grate in 1 nutmeg and let cool. Strain through fine chinois or clean cloth, carefully strain again through the same curds, bottle, and refrigerate. Serve as liqueur or add hot or cold water to taste.
Dickens, Charles. The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club. London: Chapman & Hall, 1837.
Wondrich, David. Punch. New York: Perigee, 2010.
By: Jack Robertiello