Why it works: Mint and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,998 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓
Mint Punch
Ingredients
Directions
Chop the mint finely.
Add the chopped mint to the ice and sugar.
Put all ingredients into a shaker.
Shake hard until the sugar is dissolved.
Pour the mixture into a punch bowl.
Add the other ingredients.
Serve very cold.
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.
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Mint + lemontop 4% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,998 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Mint + raspberrytop 4% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together180 recipes
Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
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Sugar + syruptop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,842 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Lemon + raspberrytop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,109 recipes
Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
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Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Sugar and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Fresh mint
- Supplies the main aromatic flavor of the punch.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and balances the sourness of the citrus or vinegar.
- Lemon juice or cider vinegar
- Adds acidity that brightens the flavor and balances the sugar.
- Raspberry syrup
- Adds fruity sweetness and color to the punch.
The step that matters
Shake hard until the sugar is dissolved. Sugar dissolves much more readily when agitated with cold liquid and ice, so vigorous shaking prevents grainy sweetness and an uneven drink.
Swap the mint
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, lemon, raspberry, syrup):
- Cinnamonfits better
- Peppermintfits about as well
- Gingerfits about as well
- Mintthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, lemon, raspberry, 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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