Name: Raleigh Raspberry Punch
Ingredients: 2 ½ cups sugar syrup; ½ cup raspberry vinegar; 2 cups orange juice; ¾ cup tea infusion; crushed ice

Why it works: Sugar and syrup match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,842 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Raleigh Raspberry Punch

Ingredients

Directions

In a large bowl, combine the sugar syrup, raspberry vinegar, orange juice, and tea infusion, then stir well to mix all ingredients.
Serve over crushed ice.

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.

Sugar + syruptop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,842 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Raspberry + orangetop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together521 recipes

Shared aroma: damascenone (apple, rose).
Orange + teatop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together333 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Raspberry + teatop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together61 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-beta-ionone (floral).
Raspberry + vinegartop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together303 recipes

Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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

What each ingredient does

Sugar syrup: Adds sweetness and body that balances the tartness of the vinegar and juice.
Raspberry vinegar: Adds tartness and fruity raspberry aroma to the punch.
Orange juice: Adds sweetness, acidity and citrus aroma, and makes up most of the liquid.
Tea infusion: Adds mild tannin bitterness that keeps the sweetness from tasting flat.

Swap the raspberry

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

Vanillafits better
Lemonfits better
Peachfits better
Raspberrythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, syrup, vinegar, orange, tea. 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.