Light Dragoons Punch: A Cocktail for South Carolina

Many region-specific punches, all the rage among thirsty, revelry-prone state militias of the antebellum era, have been lost to time (and, no doubt, modern military decorum). Not so the recipe for Light Dragoons Punch, which was fortuitously found by a friend of superstar Southern chef Sean Brock in a 1783 book housed at the Preservation Society of Charleston. Of course, old recipes are notoriously lacking in exactitude, so Rod Weaver, bartender at Brock’s Husk restaurant, has adapted it a bit for contemporary mixologists. Regardless, with more than 10 cups of booze, it still will knock out a platoon or two.