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Drink

An Admirable Cool Cup

A chilled punch made with sugar, lemon, sherry, oranges, champagne, and nutmeg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Eliza Acton · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 17 ingredients
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Why it works: Sherry and champagne share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 61 recipes. Both carry ethyl isobutyrate, which smells fruity, ethereal. The science ↓

An Admirable Cool Cup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the sugar and fruit

  1. Weigh six ounces of sugar in lumps and rub the rind of a large fresh lemon against it to extract the essence.

  2. Put the sugar and rubbed rind into a deep jug and add the strained juice of one and a half lemons.

  3. Pare as thin as possible the rinds of two China oranges, two lemons, and one Seville orange.

  4. Infuse the rinds for an hour in half a pint of thin cold syrup.

  5. Add the juice of the fruit to the syrup.

Make the tea and combine

  1. Make a pint of strong green tea and sweeten it well with fine sugar.

  2. When the tea is quite cold, add it to the fruit and syrup.

  3. Add a glass of the best old Jamaica rum, a glass of brandy, one of arrack, one of pineapple syrup, and two bottles of champagne.

  4. When the sugar dissolves, pour in a bottle of good cider and three large wineglassesful of sherry.

  5. Add nearly half a small nutmeg lightly grated.

Clarify and chill

  1. Pass the whole through a fine lawn sieve until it is perfectly clear.

  2. Bottle the clear liquid and put it into ice until dinner is served.

  3. Cover tightly and place on ice for a short time before serving.

  4. Place the mixture in ice for a couple of hours.

  5. (Optional) Add brandy if desired.

  6. Serve the cup with or without sprigs of fresh balm or borage.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

160Calories
2 gProtein
1 gFat
33 gCarbs

Counts 5 of 8 ingredients. The other 3 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 5 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Orange1 medium (131g)62
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Wine2 tbsp cooking wine (30ml)25
Lemonjuice of 1 lemon (48ml)12
Nutmeg1 tsp ground (2.2g)12
Syrupnot in our table0
Green Teanot in our table0
Champagnenot 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 Eliza Acton. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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. Sherry + champagnetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together61 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  2. Lemon + orangetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,634 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Sugar + syruptop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,842 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Orange + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,746 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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, rubbed with lemon rind, carries the citrus oils.
Green tea
Adds tannin and a light bitterness that balances the sweetness and fruit.
Champagne
Adds sparkle and a dry, lively base to the punch.
Lemons
Supply acidity and fragrant oils from the rind for brightness.
Sherry
Adds body, nutty depth and additional alcohol to the blend.

The step that matters

Passing the whole through a fine lawn sieve. Straining removes rind, pulp and sugar crystals left in suspension, so the punch turns clear rather than cloudy. Rinds must be pared thinly, since bitter white pith would otherwise add harshness that the sieve cannot remove.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, syrup, green tea, lemon, sherry, orange, champagne):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Gingerfits better
  3. Peppermintfits better
  4. Nutmegthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, syrup, green tea, lemon, sherry, orange, champagne. 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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