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Oriental Punch

A citrus-based cold drink flavored with peppermint and green coloring.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 ↓

Oriental Punch

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Mix the water, lemon juice, and orange juice together.

  2. Add enough sugar to sweeten to your taste.

  3. Strain the mixture.

  4. Add green food coloring until it reaches a very pale green.

  5. Stir in the peppermint extract for flavor.

  6. Serve cold.

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. Lemon + pepperminttop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,583 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Orange + pepperminttop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together423 recipes

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

  4. Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Orange + sugartop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together19,212 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

Lemon juice
Adds acidity that balances the sweetness and brightens the punch.
Orange juice
Adds natural sweetness and fruity aroma with a mild acidity.
Peppermint extract
Supplies the dominant aroma and flavor, so a few drops go a long way.
Sugar
Sweetens the punch and softens the sharpness of the citrus acids.

The step that matters

Stir in the peppermint extract for flavor.. Peppermint extract is very concentrated, so adding too much overpowers the drink. Adding it after straining and sweetening lets you taste and adjust the amount in small drops.

Swap the peppermint

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Gingerfits better
  3. Peppermintthe original
  4. Rosemaryfits about as well

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