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Roman Punch

A punch made with water, loaf sugar, old Jamaican rum, brandy, and lemon juice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Roman Punch

Why it works: Rum and brandy are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,058 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Roman Punch

Ingredients

Directions

Make the punch

  1. Combine the water and loaf sugar in a large container, stirring until the sugar is dissolved.

  2. Add the old Jamaica rum and brandy to the mixture.

  3. Juice the lemons and add the juice to the punch.

Freeze and serve

  1. Freeze the mixture until solid.

  2. Serve in glasses after supper on special occasions, or enjoy any time.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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

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

  2. Sugar + rumtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,908 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Sugar + brandytop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together11,939 recipes

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

  5. Rum + lemontop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

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

Loaf sugar
Dissolves into the water to sweeten the punch and softens the frozen texture.
Old jamaica rum
Adds a deep, rich aroma and flavor to the punch.
Brandy
Adds fruity aroma and warmth of flavor to the punch.
Lemons
Juice adds acidity that brightens the sweetness and balances the alcohol.

The step that matters

Dissolve the sugar fully before adding the spirits. Undissolved sugar leaves grains behind and makes the sweetness uneven. Sugar dissolves more easily before alcohol is added, so stirring until fully dissolved gives a smooth punch.

Swap the lemon

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, rum, 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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