Name: Fruit Punch
Ingredients: 1 quart sherry; ½ pint brandy; ½ pint rum; 1 pound candied cherries; ½ pound candied pineapple; ½ pound grapes; juice of 6 lemons; 1 quart cold water

Why it works: Rum and pineapple work together. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 451 recipes. Both carry ethyl isobutyrate, which smells fruity, ethereal. The science ↓

Fruit Punch

Ingredients

Directions

In a large bowl, combine the sherry, brandy, and rum.
Add the candied cherries, candied pineapple, and grapes.
Stir in the juice of the lemons and the cold water.
Mix well and serve chilled.

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.

Rum + pineappletop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together451 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).
Pineapple + grapetop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together709 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).
Sherry + rumtop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together146 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).
Brandy + rumtop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,058 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Sherry + brandytop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,209 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

What each ingredient does

Lemon juice: Adds acidity that balances the sweetness of the candied fruit and spirits.
Candied cherries: Add concentrated sweetness and chewy texture as they soften in the liquid.
Grapes: Add juiciness and fresh fruit moisture to the punch.
Sherry: Adds wine flavour and body, with some sweetness, as the base liquid.

Swap the lemon

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

Apricotfits better
Applefits better
Bananafits better
Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sherry, brandy, rum, pineapple, grape. 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.