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Roman Punch

A chilled punch made with lemon ice, champagne, maraschino liqueur, vanilla, and egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Roman Punch

Why it works: Lemon and champagne work together. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 404 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓

Roman Punch

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Place the lemon ice, champagne, maraschino, and vanilla in a freezing pot surrounded by ice.

  2. Freeze the mixture, stirring thoroughly with a spatula.

  3. Gradually add the egg whites of the Italian meringue paste while vigorously mixing.

  4. If the mixture is too stiff, add a little more champagne to achieve the desired consistency.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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 + champagnetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together404 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  2. Champagne + vanillatop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together58 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  3. Lemon + vanillatop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,961 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Lemon + eggtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

  5. Vanilla + eggtop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together27,347 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

Lemon and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 44,316 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 ice
Provides the base body, sweetness and tartness of the punch, and freezes into a slushy texture.
Egg whites
Whipped into the mixture to add lightness and an airy, frothy texture.
Champagne
Adds liquid to loosen the mixture and keeps it from freezing too hard.
Maraschino liqueur
Adds sweetness and a cherry-almond aroma to the punch.

The step that matters

Adding the egg whites while mixing. The egg whites must be folded in gradually while the mixture is still very cold and stirred vigorously. Adding them all at once or letting the mixture warm can cause uneven lumps and a loss of the light, airy texture.

Swap the vanilla

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

  1. Orangefits better
  2. Raspberryfits better
  3. Pineapplefits better
  4. Vanillathe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lemon, champagne, egg. 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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