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Drink

Fruit Punch

Fruit Punch is a chilled beverage made with sugar, water, citrus juices, and pineapple.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Martin, Maria Ewing, Mrs., [from old catalog] comp · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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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 ↓

Fruit Punch

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syrup

  1. Dissolve 4 cups sugar in 2 quarts water for 10 minutes.

  2. Cool and add 1 gallon cold water.

Add the fruit

  1. Add the strained juice of 6 oranges and 1 dozen lemons.

  2. Add 1 can grated pineapple.

Serve

  1. Serve with cracked ice.

  2. Slices of oranges and lemons and a little tart jelly may be added, if liked.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

123Calories
2 gProtein
0 gFat
31 gCarbs

Counts 3 of 4 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 3 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Orange1 medium (131g)62
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Lemonjuice of 1 lemon (48ml)12
Waternot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Martin, Maria Ewing, Mrs., [from old catalog] comp. 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. See the original page.

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. Orange + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,634 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  2. Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Sugar + orangetop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together19,212 recipes

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

Sugar and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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

Sugar
Sweetens the punch and, dissolved in water, forms a syrup that carries the flavour.
Oranges
Adds sweet citrus flavour and aroma to the punch.
Lemons
Adds tart acidity that balances the sweetness of the sugar.
Pineapple (in the method)
Adds fruity sweetness and body to the punch.

The step that matters

Dissolve the sugar fully before adding the cold water. Sugar must dissolve completely in the warm water to form a syrup. Undissolved sugar stays gritty and leaves the punch unevenly sweet.

“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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