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Brandy Punch

A hot alcoholic punch made with brandy, sugar, water, lemon, 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 syrup

  1. In a saucepan, combine water and sugar.

  2. Add lemon peel, cinnamon, nutmeg, mace, and cloves.

  3. Simmer the mixture until the sugar dissolves.

  4. Strain the mixture into a bowl.

Finish and serve

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

  2. Heat the mixture until very hot, then ignite it.

  3. Serve the punch while it is still 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

Sugar
Sweetens the punch and balances the acidity of the lemon juice.
Brandy
Provides the spirit base and the alcohol that ignites when the punch is heated.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the sweetness and the spiced brandy flavour.
Lemon peel
Releases aromatic oils that flavour the warm syrup.

The step that matters

Heating and igniting the punch. Alcohol vapour ignites only when the mixture is hot enough, and it burns off some alcohol and mellows the flavour. Heat it until very hot before lighting, and keep a lid or cover ready to smother the flame if needed.

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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