You can cook with confidence and style
(Page 1 of 2)
Fish House Punch Recipe ...It Packs a Punch!
Favorite Restaurant Recipe with Fishermen
The Story of My Fish House Punch RecipeOne day some years ago a "long-liner" (a fisherman for halibut and salmon) who was also a
regular customer of my restaurant (lounge) asked me if I had ever heard of Fish House Punch. I
hadn't, that I could recall.
He briefly described it and asked if I would serve such a punch to him and his fishermen friends
each year when they returned home, the season being over and a cause for their annual
celebration.
Once a year since then, my lounge has been home to a group of about 15 long-liners and their
wives. I always have the Fish House Punch ready for them.
A Fish House Punch is a very old punch recipe from the East Coast dating back to at least the
late 1700's as far as I can determine.
The original versions of a Fish House Punch were created for an annual get-together around
Christmas time with the ladies also invited. The purpose of the punch was to please the ladies
and make them even livelier than normal. (Some things, I think, never change.)
These annual affairs (oops) were apparently quite successful, or should I say the restaurant punch
recipe performed well?
In 1885 the Philadelphia Inquirer published a poem that had been written specifically about the
strength of the punch.
Fish House Punch
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.
(The Cook -1885)This punch recipe is at least very close to the original. It is the one I use for the fishermen and
their wives and once in a while for certain parties if they make the request.
(continued next page)
Page 256