Skip to main content
Drink

Milk Punch

A fortified beverage made with brandy, citrus rinds, lemon and orange juice, water, sugar, milk, and rum, aged in a cask.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 ↓

Milk Punch

Ingredients

Directions

Infuse and mix

  1. Infuse the brandy with the lemon and orange rinds overnight.

  2. Add the juices of the lemons and oranges to the brandy.

  3. Mix in the cold boiled water and fine loaf sugar until dissolved.

  4. Stir in the milk and let the mixture cool.

Bottle and rest

  1. Add the bottle of Jamaica rum and mix well.

  2. Transfer to a cask and seal tightly for 1 to 6 weeks.

  3. Remove the lemon and orange peels before adding the juices and water.

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. Brandy + rumtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,058 recipes

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

  3. Milk + rumtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together967 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  4. Orange + rumtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together801 recipes

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

  5. Sugar + rumtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,908 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

French brandy
Forms the alcoholic base and carries the flavours of the rinds and juices.
Lemon and orange rind
Releases aromatic oils that give the punch its citrus fragrance.
Lemon and orange juice
Adds acidity and bright citrus flavour that balances the sweetness.
Fine loaf sugar
Sweetens the punch and balances the sharpness of the citrus juice.
Milk
Binds harsh-tasting compounds and helps clarify the punch as it settles.
Jamaica rum
Adds depth and a rich, aromatic note to the blend.

The step that matters

Transfer to a cask and seal tightly for 1 to 6 weeks. A tight seal keeps air out while the flavours meld. Resting lets the harsh edges of the alcohol soften and the flavours blend smoothly, so the punch tastes rounder than it does when freshly mixed.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Pineapplefits better
  3. Apricotfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against brandy, orange, sugar, milk, rum. 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.

More milk punch recipes

Rum 15Cambridge 9Hot 3 See all 169 →

You might also like

Orange SyrupOrange Syrup47 recipesLemon WheyLemon Whey33 recipesLemon WineLemon Wine31 recipesOrange Water IceOrange Water Ice28 recipes