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Roman Punch

A chilled milk-based punch with lemon, rum, and egg whites.

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

Why it works: Milk and rum work together. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 967 recipes. Both carry ethyl 2-methylbutyrate, which smells fruity, apple. The science ↓

Roman Punch

Ingredients

Directions

Freeze the base

  1. Combine milk and sugar in a freezer.

  2. Chill until ice reaches the top of the can.

  3. Add lemon juice and freeze.

Finish and harden

  1. When it begins to thicken, add rum and beaten egg whites.

  2. Mix thoroughly and return to the freezer to harden.

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. Milk + rumtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together967 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

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

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

  3. Milk + lemontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,053 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

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

Milk
Provides the creamy body of the punch as it freezes.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and keeps the frozen mixture softer and less icy.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the sweet, creamy base.
Jamaica rum
Adds flavour and, with the sugar, lowers the freezing point for a softer texture.
Egg whites
Whipped whites trap air, giving the punch a light, foamy texture.

The step that matters

Add the rum and egg whites when it begins to thicken. Rum and sugar lower the freezing point, so adding rum too early slows setting. Folding in beaten whites while the mixture is partly frozen traps air for a light texture, and thorough mixing breaks up large ice crystals.

Swap the lemon

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, sugar, rum, egg. 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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