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Drink

Christmas Temperance Punch

A non-alcoholic punch made with citrus zest, sugar, water, apples, grape juice, ginger ale, and effervescing water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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 ↓

Christmas Temperance Punch

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syrup

  1. Grate the yellow rind from the lemons and oranges.

  2. Combine the rind with sugar and water in a pot.

  3. Stir until the sugar dissolves, then boil for 10 minutes.

  4. Strain the mixture and let it cool.

Add the fruit

  1. Add the juice of the lemons and oranges, and press the apples through a sieve into the mixture.

Serve

  1. When ready to serve, place a small block of ice in a punch bowl.

  2. Pour the syrup over the ice, then add grape juice, ginger ale, and enough effervescing water to taste.

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. Apple + grapetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,659 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  3. Orange + gingertop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,833 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  4. Lemon + gingertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,154 recipes

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

  5. Orange + grapetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,771 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Sugar
Dissolves into the water to make a sweet syrup that forms the punch's base.
Lemons
Juice adds acidity that balances the sweetness of the syrup.
Oranges
Juice adds acidity and citrus aroma, with rind flavouring the syrup.
Tart-baked apples
Pressed through a sieve, they add body and a mellow fruit flavour to the punch.
Grape juice
Adds fruity sweetness and colour to the finished punch.
Ginger ale
Adds carbonation and a light spiced sweetness to the punch.

The step that matters

Boiling the syrup and cooling it fully. Boiling dissolves the sugar completely and gives a clear, stable syrup. Adding the juices and ice to warm syrup can dilute the mix and dull its flavour, so it should be cooled before serving.

Swap the grape

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lemon, orange, sugar, apple, ginger):

  1. Cranberryfits better
  2. Pearfits better
  3. Limefits better
  4. Grapethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lemon, orange, sugar, apple, ginger. 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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