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Drink

Gin Punch

A citrusy gin cocktail with sugar, maraschino, ice, and soda water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 53,532 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Gin Punch

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. Combine the lemon rind and lemon juice in a bowl.

  2. Add the pounded sugar and fresh spring water.

  3. Let the mixture stand for 30 minutes.

Finish and serve

  1. Stir in the gin, maraschino, and pounded ice.

  2. Just before serving, add the soda water.

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.

  1. Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

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

  2. Sugar + gintop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together344 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Lemon + gintop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together306 recipes

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

Lemon and sugar 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

Lemon rind
Releases aromatic oils that flavour the punch as it stands.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that balances the sweetness of the sugar.
Loaf sugar
Sweetens the punch and helps dissolve the lemon flavour into the liquid.
Gin
Provides the main spirit and the botanical character of the drink.
Maraschino
Adds sweetness and a cherry-like almond aroma.
Soda water
Adds fizz and lightens the drink when added just before serving.

The step that matters

Add the soda water just before serving. Carbonation escapes steadily from soda water, so adding it early leaves the punch flat. Adding it last keeps the fizz lively in the glass.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits about as well
  3. Lemonthe original
  4. Orangefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, gin. 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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