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Strawberry Punch

A chilled fruit punch made from mashed strawberries, water, lemon juice, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 53,532 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Strawberry Punch

Ingredients

Directions

Make the punch

  1. Combine the mashed strawberries, cold water, and lemon juice in a large container.

  2. Let the mixture stand in a cool place for 4 hours.

  3. Strain the liquid and add the granulated sugar.

  4. Stir until the sugar is dissolved, then strain again.

Chill and serve

  1. Chill the punch in a cold place until ready to serve.

  2. Serve in tumblers with crushed ice.

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 + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

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

Lemon and sugar 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

Strawberries
Provide the main flavor and color, and their juice forms the base of the punch.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the sweetness and balances the strawberry flavor.
Granulated sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the acidity of the lemon juice.

The step that matters

Dissolving the sugar fully before the second straining. Sugar dissolves most easily in liquid that is already mixed and free of solids. Stirring until clear before straining again keeps the punch smooth and evenly sweet, rather than gritty or uneven at the bottom.

“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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