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Roman Punch

A citrus-based punch with rum, wine, and egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 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

Prepare the citrus

  1. Grate the rinds of 3 or 4 lemons and 1 or 2 oranges into a bowl.

  2. Squeeze in the juice of all the lemons and oranges, removing the seeds.

Make the syrup

  1. Make a hot syrup by dissolving the sugar in 1 pint of water.

  2. Allow the syrup to cool slightly, then pour it into the bowl with the juices.

Combine and finish

  1. Add the egg whites, Jamaica Rum, and Angelica or sweet wine to the mixture, then stir well to combine all ingredients.

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. Lemon + angelicatop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together189 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

  3. Orange + angelicatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together159 recipes

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

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

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

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

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

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Sugar
Dissolved into the water to make a syrup that sweetens the punch.
Lemons
Provide acidity and bright citrus flavour, with zest adding aroma.
Egg whites
Whip into a light, frothy texture that gives the punch body.
Jamaica rum
Adds spirit strength and a rich, warm aroma.

The step that matters

Allow the syrup to cool slightly. Hot syrup poured straight onto raw egg whites can partly cook them and dull their light texture. Cooling it slightly keeps the mixture cool enough for the whites to stay delicate and blend smoothly.

Swap the angelica

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Gingerfits better
  4. Angelicathe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, lemon, orange, egg, 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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