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Milk Punch

A punch of rum, kirschwasser and citrus juice and zest, with the zest steeped in light syrup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and orange match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,634 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Milk Punch

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the flavouring

  1. Zest the lemons and oranges.

  2. Infuse the zest in a light syrup.

Combine and serve

  1. Add the rum, kirschwasser, and the juices of the oranges and lemons.

  2. Mix well and serve after turtle soup.

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. Lemon + orangetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,634 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  2. Orange + rumtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together801 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  3. Rum + syruptop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together367 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Lemon + rumtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,341 recipes

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

  5. Lemon + syruptop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,235 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Light syrup
Adds sweetness and carries the citrus flavour through the punch.
Rum
Provides the alcoholic base and body, and carries the flavours of the other ingredients.
Kirschwasser
Adds a distinct cherry-like aroma and depth of flavour.
Lemons
Juice adds acidity that brightens and balances the sweetness.
Oranges
Juice adds fruity sweetness and acidity, and zest adds aromatic oils.

The step that matters

Infuse the zest in a light syrup. The aromatic oils sit in the outer peel, so only the coloured zest should be used. White pith under the peel is bitter and will carry into the punch if included.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (orange, rum, syrup):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Pineapplefits better
  3. Mangofits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against orange, rum, syrup. 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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