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Drink

Dragoon Punch

A large-batch punch of whiskey, rum, raspberry cordial, lemon, sugar and Apollinaris mineral water, served over ice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Pineapple and rum work together. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 451 recipes. Both carry ethyl isobutyrate, which smells fruity, ethereal. The science ↓

Dragoon Punch

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the base

  1. Squeeze the lemons and strain the pulp.

  2. Add about 1 quart of water and 2 tumblers of sugar.

  3. Stir until the sugar is dissolved.

  4. Mix in the whiskey, cherries, and Jamaica rum.

  5. Add 5 quarts of Apollinaris, stirring continuously.

Finish and serve

  1. Just before serving, add the remaining 3 quarts of Apollinaris for effervescence.

  2. Garnish with 2 thinly sliced lemons on top.

  3. Place a cube of ice in the bowl.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Pineapple + rumtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  2. Pineapple + raspberrytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together195 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, sweet).

  3. Lemon + raspberrytop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,109 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  4. Raspberry + rumtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together80 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  5. Lemon + pineappletop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,964 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Whiskey
Forms the spirit base that gives the punch its main body and strength.
Apollinaris water
Adds dilution and carbonation, giving the punch its lively effervescence.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the sharpness of the lemon juice.
Lemons
Provide acidity and fresh citrus aroma that brighten the punch.
Jamaica rum
Adds depth and a rich, aromatic note alongside the whiskey.

The step that matters

Just before serving, add the remaining Apollinaris. Carbonation is lost quickly once the water is added and stirred, so adding the last sparkling water just before serving keeps the punch fizzy.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, pineapple, raspberry, rum):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Peachfits better
  3. Strawberryfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, pineapple, raspberry, rum. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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