Clarified milk punch

Pour a lemon-sharp punch into a pan of milk and the milk breaks into curds. Leave it, strain it, and what comes through is clear as white wine, with the edges sanded off every flavor that went in. Milk punch is clarification by kitchen chemistry, and it is one of the oldest batched drinks there is.

A paragraph of history

Difford's traces the earliest known recipe to Mary Rockett in 1711, in England, where brandy milk punch was a fashionable household drink through the eighteenth century; by 1838 a bottled version carried a royal warrant from Queen Victoria. Campari Academy notes that Benjamin Franklin wrote out his own recipe in a letter, and that the method is at least as old as the seventeenth century. It faded from use and came back with the craft revival, where its stability and its silk made it a bartender's favorite for bottled service.

What you need

• A punch. For a first batch, this house formula: 10 oz / 300 ml cognac or aged rum, 5 oz / 150 ml strong cold black tea, 4 oz / 120 ml fresh lemon juice, 3 oz / 90 ml rich 2:1 demerara syrup, 3 oz / 90 ml water, the peels of 2 lemons, 6 whole cloves and half a nutmeg grated. About 25 oz / 750 ml in total.
• Whole milk, 3 to 4 percent fat: 6.5 oz / 190 ml, which is 1 part milk to 4 parts punch. Low-fat milk gives a thin, slow curd.
• A large bowl or pot, a nut-milk bag or four layers of cheesecloth, a fine mesh strainer, a funnel, and sterilized bottles.
• A refrigerator with room for the bowl overnight.

Steps

1. Combine the spirit, tea, lemon juice, syrup, water, peels and spices in a jar. Seal and refrigerate for 12 hours so the peels and spice infuse. Strain out the solids.
2. Measure the punch. Milk goes in at one quarter of that volume: for 25 oz / 750 ml of punch, 6.5 oz / 190 ml of milk. That is one figure stated two ways: 25 percent of the punch volume, which Campari Academy recommends, is the same as the 20 percent of combined volume that Cocktails and Bars uses.
3. Put the milk in the large bowl. Cold milk works. Difford's and his commenters found no advantage in heating it, and the hot method only adds a step. If you prefer it, warm the milk to a bare simmer, about 180 F (82 C), and take it off the heat.
4. Pour the punch into the milk, never the milk into the punch. Add the first third slowly while stirring; you will see the milk break into fine curds. Stop stirring and add the rest gently down the side of the bowl. Pouring milk into punch makes scattered clumps that do not trap the haze.
5. Cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours and ideally overnight. The curd settles into a mat and the liquid above begins to clear.
6. Line the strainer with the cloth over a clean container, in the fridge if it fits. Ladle the liquid and curd into it slowly. The first cup through will be cloudy: pour it back over the curd. Once a mat of curd has built up in the cloth it becomes the filter, and the liquid runs bright. Do not squeeze.
7. Strain a second time through a coffee filter if you want wine clarity. Bottle, date, refrigerate.

Yield is roughly 26 oz / 780 ml. Serve 3 oz / 90 ml over a large cube with a lemon peel, or straight from the fridge in a small stemmed glass.

Shelf life

The acid, the alcohol and the removal of the proteins that spoil make this a stable bottle. Difford's gives about a week and suggests it can run to months; Cocktails and Bars reports up to six months in a sterilized, sealed bottle. Our house rule is four weeks refrigerated for a batch at this strength (about 15 percent alcohol by our arithmetic: 120 ml of ethanol from 300 ml of 40 percent spirit, in a 780 ml yield), and sooner if it ever turns hazy or smells sour. Sterilize the bottles, fill them full, and keep them cold.

What can go wrong

• It did not curdle. Not enough acid. The punch needs real lemon or lime, or a tannic tea, to split the casein. Add 1 oz / 30 ml of lemon juice and try again.
• It is still cloudy after straining. You squeezed the cloth or poured too fast, or did not recirculate the first run. Let it rest another night and strain again through the curd.
• It tastes thin. The milk took a share of the flavor with it; that is normal, and the 2:1 syrup and strong tea in the formula account for it. Taste before bottling and adjust with a little syrup.
• Curd slipped through. Cloth too coarse. Use four layers, or a nut-milk bag.
• It went pink or brown over time. Oxidation of the fruit. Keep bottles full and dark.

Allergen and responsible service note

Milk punch contains milk. The curd is strained out, but milk proteins remain in the finished drink, and milk is one of the nine major allergens the FDA names in US law. Say "contains dairy" on any menu or bottle, even though the liquid is clear and looks like nothing of the kind. A punch this smooth hides its strength; this formula pours at roughly 15 percent alcohol, so a 3 oz glass is about three-quarters of a US standard drink. Please enjoy responsibly.

Sources

• Simon Difford, "Clarified vodka milk punch", Difford's Guide.
• Campari Academy, "Milk punch guide and recipes".
• Cocktails and Bars, "How to make clarified milk punch".
• US Food and Drug Administration, "Food allergies".