A thick, buttery yellow-pea soup, known as artsoppa in Sweden, it is always served with fresh bacon that cooks along with the peas, with rye crisp bread covered with grated sharp cheese and with hot punsch, a sweet alcoholic punch.

Officers are conducting tests on an alcoholic punch and a bowl of cooked chicken found in the house where the 12 bodies were found, Miss Gonzalez said.

When he reminds us that London's celebrated 18th-century coffeehouses supplied their customers with "vast bowls of alcoholic punch," we understand that Hodgkinson wants to take back lunch for the conviviality and conversation but especially, it appears, for the punch.

At the Bar Two-handled cups were early communal drinking vessels for hot or cold alcoholic punches that were passed around the table.

Their 'Old Wobbly' packs an alcoholic punch.

As an example of this he interviews Jerry Garcia who, in a short satire of a cooking show, explains how to make hors d'oeuvres and non alcoholic punch.

The building was extended in the 18th century to house John Shaw's Punch House which, as the name suggests, was licensed for the sale of strong alcoholic punch and became a meeting place for High Tories and possibly Jacobites.

Although Chase, as befitted the exponent of austerity in wartime, served neither food nor drink, while the Speaker of the House wisely served only coffee, other houses specialized in alcoholic punches and eggnogs.

The new policy prohibits delivery of alcohol to campus, and the use of common sources, including kegs, beer balls and alcoholic punches, at fraternity houses and residence halls, even if they are purchased by students over 21.