Why it works: Cognac brandy and rum share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 68 recipes. Both carry 2-methoxy-4-propylphenol, which smells allspice, anise. The science ↓
To Make Punch
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the lemons
Rub the outsides of the lemons with lumps of sugar until they turn yellow.
Place the sugar lumps in a bowl.
Roll the lemons on a clean surface.
Cut the lemons in half.
Squeeze the juice over the sugar.
Make the syrup
Bruise the sugar.
Mix the bruised sugar with the lemon pulp and juice until sweet enough for a child.
Gradually add hot water to thin the syrup.
Strain the mixture.
Taste and add more sugar if it's sour.
Finish the punch
Once cold, add equal parts cognac and rum, adjusting to taste.
Optionally, add a glass of warm calves'-foot jelly to the syrup.
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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Cognac brandy + rumtop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together68 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-propylphenol (allspice, anise).
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Sugar + rumtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,908 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Lemon + rumtop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,341 recipes
Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
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Lemon + cognac brandytop 24% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together169 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Lemon and sugar 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
- Lemons
- Provide the acidity and aromatic oils that balance the sugar and spirits.
- Loaf sugar
- Provides sweetness and, when rubbed on the peel, draws out aromatic lemon oils.
- Cognac brandy
- Adds warm, fruity alcohol flavour and body to the punch.
- Old jamaica rum
- Adds deep, molasses-like flavour and aroma alongside the brandy.
- Calves'-foot jelly
- Adds gelatin for a slightly richer body and mouthfeel in the optional version.
The step that matters
Taste and adjust the sugar before adding the spirits. Sugar and acid balance is set while the mixture is still non-alcoholic. Once the spirits are added and the punch is cold, sweetness is harder to judge and correct, so the syrup should be right first.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, cognac brandy, rum):
- Vanillafits better
- Pineapplefits better
- Applefits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, cognac brandy, rum. 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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