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Roman Punch

A chilled beverage made with water, sugar, lemon and orange juice, green tea, and rum.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Roman Punch

Why it works: Lemon and orange 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 ↓

Roman Punch

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. In a large pot, combine the water and sugar, stirring until dissolved.

  2. Add the juice of the lemons and orange, and the green tea.

  3. Stir in the rum.

Chill and serve

  1. Chill the mixture in the refrigerator 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.

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

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

  2. Green tea + rumtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together60 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  3. Orange + rumtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together801 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Orange + green teatop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together46 recipes

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

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 sharpness of the citrus juice.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the drink and cuts through the sugar.
Orange juice
Adds sweet-tart citrus flavor and some body to the punch.
Green tea
Adds mild tannin, a slight bitterness, and a dry finish that balances the sweetness.
Rum
Contributes aroma and a warm, full flavor to the punch.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Pineapplefits better
  3. Mangofits about as well
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, orange, green tea, rum. 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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