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Drink

Prepared Punch

A punch made with sweet and bitter almonds, cinnamon, cloves, syrup, bourbon whiskey, and raspberry syrup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Prepared Punch

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the almonds

  1. Scald the sweet and bitter almonds and peel them.

  2. Mash the almonds and mix them with the syrup, cinnamon, and cloves.

Make the punch

  1. Boil the mixture in 7 gallons of water for five minutes.

  2. Strain the mixture through a plain flannel filter.

  3. Add 2 gallons of Bourbon whiskey and 1 gallon of raspberry syrup.

  4. Stir well and serve.

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. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Almond + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,514 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Almond + raspberrytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together552 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  4. Almond + clovetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,605 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Cinnamon + raspberrytop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together326 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

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

What each ingredient does

Sweet almonds
Provide the main nutty flavour and body of the punch.
Bitter almonds
Add a sharper, more intense almond aroma than sweet almonds alone.
Bourbon whiskey
Adds alcoholic strength and warm, oaky aroma to the punch.
Raspberry syrup
Adds sweetness and fruity flavour that balances the spirit.

The step that matters

Strain through a plain flannel filter. Mashed almonds and spices leave fine particles that cloud the liquid. Straining thoroughly through flannel removes them, giving a clear punch with a smooth texture.

Swap the raspberry

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (almond, cinnamon, clove, syrup):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Quincefits better
  4. Raspberrythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against almond, cinnamon, clove, syrup. 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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