Sherry Punch

The opening salvo in my Titanic dinner party.

I've steered clear of punch, since its often just mixed fruit juice with any old booze poured in. Or it requires LOTS of ingredients (my favourite starts with a gallon of GOOD champagne (their emphasis)). A bit of research suggests that a good punch requires "Oleo-sacchrum" or sweet oil.

This is made by muddling the zest of lemon with sugar.
The sugar pierces the zest releasing the oils, the sugar then acts to bring the oils out & a sweet oily syrup is created. The longer you can leave this the better.

Add boiling water and remove any pips, peel or other solids. I combined this step with tea making, so added a couple of teaspoons of good loose earl grey and let it stand with the boiling water for twenty minutes before straining.

Once it had cooled I added a few good measures of dark rum & Cognac. This formed the base of the punch (what some experts call "the Mixture") which stood for a good 24 hours.

In a mixing bowl the mixture went in with a bottle of amontillado sherry and a bottle of Chardonnay (originally it was going to be two, but the taste & quantity seemed right with just the one). A good quantity of ice was added, which thanks to a friend who has a similar sense of humour, was in the shape of Titanics & Icebergs.