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Superior Punch

A chilled whiskey and rum punch with peach cordial, sherry, citrus, sugar, and ice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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 ↓

Superior Punch

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a large bowl, combine the whiskey, Jamaica rum, peach cordial, sugar, and sherry wine.

  2. Add the sliced oranges and lemons, mixing well.

  3. Pour in just enough water to dissolve the sugar completely.

  4. Chill the mixture with a large lump of ice for about an hour before serving.

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

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

  2. Rum + sherrytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together146 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  3. Rum + brandytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,058 recipes

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

  4. Brandy + sherrytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,209 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  5. Peach + orangetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together385 recipes

    Shared aroma: pinene (pine, turpentine).

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 citrus and the alcohol.
Whiskey
Provides the main spirit base and strength of the punch.
Sherry wine
Adds a dry, nutty depth and dilutes the stronger spirits slightly.
Lemons
Add acidity that brightens the sweetness and the spirits.
Peach cordial
Contributes peach fruitiness and aroma to the blend.

The step that matters

Dissolving the sugar before chilling. Sugar dissolves far more readily in a liquid with some water present than in strong spirits alone. Undissolved sugar leaves a gritty texture and an uneven sweetness, so the water should be added before the mixture is chilled with ice.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rum, peach, brandy, sugar, sherry, wine, orange):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Apricotfits better
  3. Pineapplefits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rum, peach, brandy, sugar, sherry, wine, orange. 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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