If you're looking for something different to serve at parties this holiday
season, take a page out of Mrs. Robert E. Lee's book and try Roman Punch.
This unusual recipe comes from The Robert E. Lee Family Cooking and
Housekeeping Book, by Anne Carter Zimmer, a great-granddaughter of the
Lees.
Like many women of her era, Mrs. Lee and her daughters used a small notebook to record recipes as well as household inventories, shopping lists, and formulas for home remedies. Anne Zimmer has tested the recipes and adapted them to modern kitchens in th is charming volume that is part cookbook, part culinary history, and part family history.
Zimmer speculates that this punch could have been served frozen in small glasses at multicourse Victorian meals as a palate cleanser. The cassis flavor comes from currant jelly. Black rum gives it depth, while sugar adds smoothness; the sweetness dimini shes with cold. It is sensational frozen to a slushy consistency and served in a showy punch bowl. Make ahead to allow time to ripen.
Heat about half the water with sugar and jelly, stirring to dissolve. Make tea with the rest. Combine the two mixtures. Cool, add lemon juice, brandy, and rum. Ripen overnight at room temperature or up to 3 days in refrigerator, then freeze if you like. Makes about a gallon.
The Robert E. Lee Family Cooking and Housekeeping Book is available at bookstores or from the University of North Carolina Press. 1-800-848-6224. Say you saw it on the internet! Email ordering also available.
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