Name: The Pope’s Punch
Ingredients: 1 cup rum; 1 cup water; 1 cup sugar; 1 cup lemon juice; 1 cup orange juice; 1 cup tea; 1 teaspoon grated nutmeg; 1 teaspoon cinnamon

Why it works: Nutmeg and cinnamon 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 ↓

The Pope’s Punch

Ingredients

Directions

Make the punch

In a large bowl, combine the rum, water, sugar, lemon juice, orange juice, and tea.
Stir until the sugar is fully dissolved.
Add the grated nutmeg and cinnamon, mixing well.

Chill and serve

Chill the mixture in the refrigerator for at least an hour before serving.
Serve over ice in punch glasses.

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.

Nutmeg + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together11,917 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Lemon + orangetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together10,634 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Orange + cinnamontop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,437 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together11,318 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Lemon + cinnamontop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together7,950 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

Rum: Provides the alcoholic base and warming character of the punch.
Sugar: Adds sweetness and balances the acidity of the citrus juices.
Lemon juice: Adds acidity that brightens the punch and balances the sweetness.
Orange juice: Adds fruity sweetness and body to the punch.
Tea: Adds tannin and a subtle bitterness that gives the punch depth.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rum, sugar, orange, tea, nutmeg, cinnamon):

Vanillafits better
Lemonthe original
Figfits about as well
Peachfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against rum, sugar, orange, tea, nutmeg, cinnamon. 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.