Hero (1951); Pina Fria (1952)

[Mike Salovesh]

Bapopik at AOL.COM quoted:

> _Eating, Drinking in Puerto Rico_
>
> Fish Dishes, Unusual Fruits and Cool-Blended
>    Concoctions of Rum Are Bases of Hospitality
>
> By Clementine Paddleford
>
        <<other stuff skipped>>

> San Geronimo  punch takes its name from Old Fort San Geronimo on the east >grounds ofthe hotel.  This is a tough one.  The fort has stood as a Spanish >bastion for 400 years and this drink is made to commemorate lasting bastions.  >Here's the mixture: take two ounces of Puerto Rican rum, one and one-half ounces >of orange juice, one and one-half ounces of pineapple juice, one-half ounce of >lime juice, one teaspoon of sugar, shake well with crushed ice and pour into a >Collins glass.
> At the Caribe Hilton the price is 70 cents.

Well, maybe they called it "punch", but it doesn't fit the classic
definition. Let me contextualize:

I attended the Linguistic Institute at Ann Arbor in 1956 as captive
graduate student to Norman A. McQuown.  Al Marckwardt invited LSA
officers and bigwigs to a reception at his home -- and then found that
he could arrive no earlier than his guests.  The day before the
reception, he asked McQuown to help by mixing what he called "the
infamous Marckwardt punch" for the reception.  McQuown handed the job
off to me, and I dutifully asked Marckwardt for his recipe.  He began
his answer by saying words to this effect:  "Both the word 'punch' and
the beverage it names came to us through the British rule over India.
British colonial administrators discovered a pleasantly cooling native
drink whose name is derived from Sanskrit 'panchat', meaning five.  A
true punch, therefore, must have five liquid ingredients." McQuown
endorsed the story.  With such impeccable provenance, I never thought it
necessary to check another source.  Anytime I have prepared a punch
since that Linguistic Institute I have made certain that it contained
five main liquid ingredients.

Now that I've gotten this far into my memory of how I learned to follow
the Rule of Five when making punch, I'll go off topic to complete the
story.

After delivering his dictum about the etymology and history of punch,
Marckwardt named his favorite mixture of ingredients. (Don't ask what
they are; I am pledged not to reveal all of the secret.) Then he handed
McQuown the key to his house.  Next day, Mac took me to Marckwardt's
kitchen and I mixed the punch.

The punch I made didn't smell or taste alcoholic, but it carried a
brutal punch.  (Pun not intended.)  Marckwardt's guests at his reception
included the LSA board, some other distinguished linguists, and the
scholar who was scheduled to speak later that evening.  As it was a
particularly hot day, all of the guests at the reception drank freely of
the cooling concoction I had made.  It was a very mellow reception:
everybody was staggering when it ended.  At the banquet that followed
the reception, the guest of honor fell asleep, and his head drooped into
his soup.

Next day, Marckwardt asked Mac and me what we had put in the punch.  I
said it contained only the ingredients I had been told to mix, in the
proportions he had told me to follow.  Mac commented that he had been at
the afternoon session with Marckwardt, so he didn't see me mix the
punch, but he was sure I would have followed directions.

Marckwardt said "My God, did you mix the punch the day it was served?
Why did you think I gave you my keys the day before the reception?  The
secret of this punch is that you put a 50-pound block of ice in a big
punchbowl, mix and add the punch, and let it stand for a day.  Then you
remove what remains of the  ice.  Enough ice will have melted off the
block to dilute the punch to exactly the right alcoholic level, and it
will be cooled to just the right degree. Well, how much ice did you
use?"  I told him I used two trays of ice cubes from his refrigerator.

My wife and I modified the recipe for that punch because one of
Marckwardt's ingredients is extremely hard to find nowadays. We have
served our version on many occasions. Our recipe for "Salovesh's
infamous punch" calls for two ordinary trays of ice cubes.

And, of course, five liquid ingredients.

-- mike salovesh    <salovesh at niu.edu>    PEACE !!!