Name: Pekoe Punch
Ingredients: 1 quart tea infusion; 1 cup sugar syrup; ½ cup lemon juice; ¼ cup orange juice; 1 quart iced water; 1 sliced orange; 1 sliced lemon; 1 cup whole strawberries

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 ↓

Pekoe Punch

Ingredients

Directions

In a large pitcher, combine the tea infusion, sugar syrup, lemon juice, and orange juice.
Chill the mixture in the refrigerator.
Once chilled, add the iced water, sliced orange, sliced lemon, and whole strawberries.
Serve over 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.

Lemon + orangetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together10,634 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Sugar + syruptop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,842 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together610 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Tea + orangetop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together333 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked 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

Tea infusion: Provides the base liquid and the tea flavour that defines the punch.
Sugar syrup: Adds sweetness and balances the acidity of the citrus juices.
Lemon juice: Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and offsets the sweetness.
Strawberries: Contribute fruity aroma and flavour as they steep in the chilled punch.