Name: The Prince of Wales’ Punch
Ingredients: 1 bottle sparkling wine; ⅓ cup maraschino liqueur; ½ cup thin bright strawberry syrup; juice of 6 oranges; rind of 1 lemon, rubbed on sugar; 1 pint German seltzer water

Why it works: Orange and lemon 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 ↓

The Prince of Wales’ Punch

Ingredients

1 bottle sparkling wine
⅓ cup maraschino liqueur
½ cup thin bright strawberry syrup
juice of 6 oranges
rind of 1 lemon, rubbed on sugar
1 pint German seltzer water

Directions

Place all ingredients in a freezing pot.
Immerse the pot in rough ice.
Stir well to combine and chill.

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.

Orange + lemontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together10,634 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Syrup + sugartop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,842 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Strawberry + orangetop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together726 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Sparkling wine + strawberrytop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together13 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).
Sparkling wine + orangetop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Sparkling wine: Provides bubbles and a lively, effervescent body to the punch.
Maraschino liqueur: Adds sweetness and a distinctive cherry-almond aroma.
Strawberry syrup: Contributes sweetness, fruity flavor and color.
Orange juice: Adds acidity and bright citrus flavor that balances the sweetness.

Swap the strawberry

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

Vanillafits better
Limefits about as well
Pineapplefits about as well
Strawberrythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sparkling wine, syrup, orange, lemon, 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.