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THE MIXICOLOGIST.

159

CUPS AND THEIR CUSTOMS.

Let your utensils be clean, and your ingredients of

first-rate quality, and, unless you have someone very

trustworthy and reliable, take the matter in hand your

self; for nothing is so annoying to the host, or so un

palatable to the guests, as a badly compounded cup.

In order that the magnitude of this important business

may be fully understood and properly estimated, we

will transfer some of the excellent aphoristic remarks of

the illustrious Billy Dawson (though we have not the

least idea who he was), whose illustrisity consisted in

being the only man who could brew punch. This is

his testimony: "The man who sees, does, or thinks of

anything while he is making Punch, may as well look

for the Northwest Passage on Mutton Hill. A man

can never make good Punch unless he is satisfied, nay,

positive, that no man breathing can make better. I can

and do make good Punch, because I do nothing else;

and this is my way of doing it. I retire to a solitary

corner, with my ingredients ready sorted; they are as

follows, and I mix them in the order they are here

written: Sugar, twelve tolerable lumps; hot water,one

pint; lemons, two, the juice and peel; old Jamaica rum,

two gills; brandy, one gill; porter or stout, half a gill;

arrack, a slight dash. I allow myself five minutes to

make a bowl on the foregoing proportions, carefully

stirring the mixture as I furnish the ingredients until it

actually foams; and then. Kangaroos! how beautiful it

is!!" If, however, for convenience, you place the

matter in the hands of your domestic, I would advise