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Brandy Punch

A hot alcoholic punch made with brandy, sugar, lemon, and spices, ignited before serving.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Brandy Punch

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syrup

  1. In a saucepan, combine water, sugar, lemon peel, cinnamon, nutmeg, mace, and cloves.

  2. Simmer the mixture until the sugar dissolves, then strain it.

Finish and serve

  1. Add the brandy and lemon juice to the strained mixture.

  2. Heat the mixture until very hot, then carefully ignite it in a bowl.

  3. Serve while burning.

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. Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Nutmeg + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Nutmeg + macetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  5. Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

What each ingredient does

Sugar
Sweetens the punch and balances the acidity of the lemon and the strength of the brandy.
Brandy
Provides the main alcohol flavour and the spirit that can be ignited for serving.
Lemons
Supply acidity and aroma from the peel and juice, brightening the spiced sweetness.

The step that matters

Igniting the punch. Alcohol vapour above the hot liquid is what burns, so the mixture must be hot enough to ignite but handled carefully to avoid flare-ups. Igniting it in a bowl keeps the flame contained while it burns off some of the alcohol and mellows the flavour.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, lemon, cinnamon, nutmeg, clove, brandy):

  1. Allspicefits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Gingerfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, lemon, cinnamon, nutmeg, clove, brandy. 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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