This cocktail comes courtesy of Helen Cassin Kinkaid (née Helen Sherburne Ross), descendant of Revolutionary War Major John Samuel Sherburne.
She met Thomas Cassin Kinkaid while he was an ensign at the Naval Academy in Annapolis and they were eventually married. According to Wikipedia: “Their marriage produced no children. They enjoyed playing contract bridge and golf, and Helen was the women’s golf champion for the District of Columbia in 1921 and 1922.” Kinkaid went on to be an admiral during World War II. I don’t really understand war but the Wikipedia entry about Mr. Kinkaid is quite extensive if you want to know more.
Admiral Thomas C. Kinkaid, U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph
For those not in the know: “claret” is Bordeaux. The original recipe called for ½ pint of Jamaica Rum but I went full pint. It also specified a “gill” of maraschino. That is a half-cup.
I’m not sure why this is called Valentines Claret Punch. I did find this reference to claret punch in “Puck’s Annual” almanac from 1880:
I say go forth, make this punch and drink away the irritation that Valentine’s Day begets.
Recipe:
1 quart tea
½ lb sugar
1 cup Jamaica Rum
1 quart Claret
¼ cup Maraschino
juice of 3 lemons
juice of 3 oranges
Strain all ingredients and serve with ice. “Liquors can be increased.”
Adapted from Maryland’s Way, “Helen Cassin Kinkaid’s Book, Hanover Street”
Once again we return to “Maryland’s Way,” this time for a patience-testing take on a most cherished Maryland libation.
This recipe for “Apple Toddy,” one of many that I considered, comes from Louis Dorsey Gassaway (b.1862) of Annapolis. Although his mother was a member the notable Dorsey family, L. Dorsey Gassaway appears to have led a relatively humble life as a bank teller at the Farmers National Bank.
That doesn’t mean that he didn’t know how to party. This toddy recipe involves a lot of booze and a full year’s maturation.
Like many of the “Maryland’s Way” recipe originators, Gassaway was also involved in documenting and preserving local history – collecting and publishing family histories… that sort of thing. Gassaway passed away in 1940.
“From the middle of the eighteenth century to the dawn of the twentieth, the toddy, a versatile and resilient precursor of the cocktail, dominated the landscape of American drinking…. Around the 1780s, a variant of the toddy appeared, even more popular in the Chesapeake region than the original: the apple toddy… Maryland had a special fondness for the drink that stretched into the early decades of the 1900s.”
The Gassaway receipt called for Peach Brandy, which I could not find. Thankfully the Priebes advise that a fine apple brandy is a good substitute. Instinct told me to avoid brandies which bore the word “flavored.”
The receipt did not specify on whiskey, so I used Pikesville Rye, “probably the most authentic” choice according to “Forgotten Maryland Cocktails.”
As for apples, my options were endless. Apples are king at the farmers market this time of year. I asked the very first orchard I came across for an apple similar to “Stayman” or “Winesap” and was recommended “Enterprise”. I went on to notice that other vendors had Stayman and Winesap varieties, including “Stayman Winesap.” Any of these types of apples will do, I’m sure.
I can’t comment on the outcome of this recipe, as it will be stored away until next winter. The Priebes cautioned that “for the uninitiated, the apple toddy can be quite the potent drink, especially if undiluted.” I only hope that I can remember the instruction to add water. Maybe I should write it on the jar…
I highly recommend this book to Maryland enthusiasts. In addition to many other drinks, it offers much more information on the Apple Toddy, chronicling its decline, resurrection, and a cautionary tale should you not “dilute! dilute! dilute!*”
Recipe:
4 Stayman or Winesap apple
4-6 cloves
½ pint brandy
½ pint peach brandy
½ pint Jamaican Rum
¼ lb sugar
1 quart Whiskey, Maryland Rye preferred
Stick a few cloves in half of the apples and bake all until ready to burst. Dissolve sugar in a few tablespoons of water. Put the baked apples in a gallon jar.. Pour the liquors on them, cover the jar and let sit for 12 months.
To serve, add 3 pints of cold water, plus a lump of ice.
Recipe adapted from “Maryland’s Way: The Hammond-Harwood House Cookbook”
*That’s a little Dr. Bronner’s reference for you there. I can’t say the word dilute just once thanks to Dr. Bronner.
There comes a time in the life of every seasonal fruit, when having been consumed to excess and then lent to some other assortment of creative uses, finally what is left of the fruit must be preserved. In modern times we have some options here. We have freezers and dehydrators, in addition to those methods of antiquity; preserving with sugar or pickling. Another preservation method from antiquity is currently having its day (again) and that is the shrub.
“Shrub” can refer to a vinegar-based syrup made with fruit or herbs, or it can refer to a drink made from this syrup. In this case it will be fruit, substituting wineberries and blackberries for raspberries in Maryland Raspberry Shrub.
Old Maryland cookbooks such as “Eat, Drink & Be Merry in Maryland” tend to have a good amount of space dedicated to alcoholic beverages, whether their purpose is social, medicinal, or for further use in the kitchen.
Edwin Tunis Illustration, “Eat, Drink & Be Merry in Maryland”
For typical servants and housewives, brewing and alcoholic preserving was as essential a part of duties as canning and baking. For the more well-to-do and decadent, cocktails factor in as well (this blog may be the death of me come eggnog season.)
My friends’ backyard tree was brimming with rapidly ripening sour cherries and so we grabbed the nearest “bounce” recipe and got picking.
I had several options: Mrs. B.C. Howard alone has four recipes in “Fifty Years in a Maryland Kitchen.” Plus one for blackberry bounce (I wish I had that many blackberries.)
The Hammond-Harwood House cookbook “Maryland’s Way” has a recipe contributed by Sarah Perry Rodgers who says that “Miss Ridgley” of Baltimore used whiskey and Jamaica rum and that the Ridgley’s “were known for their bounce.”
Even the temperate Elizabeth Ellicott Lea has a recipe for “Cherry Cordial,” for medicinal use such as “female complaints.”
“The addition of ethyl alcohol rather than rum or rye, and the very large quantity of sugar all suggest this medical application. The social drink, made with rum in Maryland and rye in Pennsylvania, was infinitely easier to make and infinitely easier to drink than Lea’s concoction.” – William Woys Weaver, A Quaker Woman’s Cookbook: The Domestic Cookery of Elizabeth Ellicott Lea
I went with a recipe contributed by “Mrs. Wm. Courtland Hart” of Somerset County to “Eat, Drink and Be Merry in Maryland”
It seems that Mrs. William Courtland Hart was Eliza Waters, of the well known Waters family, and an heir to the Beechwood estate in Somerset County, which she passed on to WIlliam Courtland Hart. The property eventually became the local American Legion.
“As the first first lady, Mrs. Washington served Cherry Bounce in the president’s house. Abigail Adams would write to her sister about “Mrs. W’s publick day” party on New Year’s Day, 1790: The two delicacies of the season were “a kind of cake in fashion upon this day call’d New Year’s Cooky. This & Cherry Bounce,” which were the customary treats of the holiday.” – The Wall Street Journal
Martha Washington’s recipe involved using the cherry pits. Some recipes retain the cherry “meat” and then when you remove it later you can use them for other purposes. That may have been a nice frugal idea but we took the easiest path with Mrs. Hart’s recipe using the juice, heavily spiced with the usual suspects of the time, swapping nutmeg for mace. Other recipes bottle the mixture at later points but we bottled it immediately.
I forgot to photograph the brandy bottle but it was the finest middle-of-the-line.
We will crack open these bottles later this summer and figure out what the heck it can be used for. I’m guessing it will involve ice cream..
