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Brandy Punch

A hot alcoholic beverage made with brandy, lemon juice, sugar, water, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Brandy Punch

Ingredients

Directions

Make the spiced syrup

  1. Simmer water, sugar, lemon peel, cinnamon, nutmeg, mace, and cloves together.

  2. Strain the mixture.

Finish and serve

  1. Add brandy and lemon juice to the strained mixture.

  2. Heat the mixture until very hot.

  3. Set the bowl on fire and serve burning.

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 + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Nutmeg + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Nutmeg + macetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  5. Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

What each ingredient does

Brandy
Provides the main spirit flavour and alcohol that carries the punch's aroma.
Sugar
Sweetens the punch and balances the acidity of the lemon juice.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the spiced, rich flavour of the brandy.
Lemon peel
Releases aromatic oils into the simmering liquid for citrus fragrance.

The step that matters

Set the bowl on fire and serve burning. Alcohol vapour ignites when the punch is hot enough, so it must be very hot before lighting. Lighting it cold may fail to ignite, and the flame burns off some alcohol while leaving flavour behind.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, lemon, cinnamon, nutmeg, clove, brandy):

  1. Allspicefits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Gingerfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, lemon, cinnamon, nutmeg, clove, brandy. 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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