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Pineapple Punch

A tropical punch made with pineapple, lemon, rice, spices, and spirits.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Pineapple Punch

Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Pineapple Punch

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fruit and rice

  1. Pare the pineapple and remove the specks.

  2. Cut the pineapple into thin slices.

  3. Weigh the pineapple pulp and place half a pound of pulp in a bowl.

  4. Boil the rice in a quart of cold water with cinnamon and nutmeg until soft.

  5. Strain the cooked rice and set it aside.

Make the punch

  1. Rub sugar on the lemon rinds and add more sugar to make 1½ pounds.

  2. Mix the sugar, lemon rinds, pineapple, and strained lemon juice.

  3. Pour in 3 pints of boiling water.

  4. Pour the mixture back and forth between two jugs for 20 minutes.

  5. Gradually add the brandy, Madeira, and rum.

  6. Continue pouring the liquid for 45 minutes.

  7. Add the seasoned rice-water and stir quickly.

Cool and bottle

  1. Pour the mixture into a bowl with a lid and cover with a cloth.

  2. Let it cool for 8 hours.

  3. Strain through a jelly-bag until bright.

  4. Bottle and cork securely.

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. Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Pineapple + rumtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  3. Rice + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,137 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Brandy + rumtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,058 recipes

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

  5. Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

What each ingredient does

Ripe pineapple
Provides the main fruit flavour and juice that forms the body of the punch.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the acidity of the lemons and spirits.
Fresh lemons
Supply acidity and aromatic oils from the rinds, brightening the punch.
Carolina rice
Its starch, cooked and strained, lends a softening body to the liquid.
French brandy
Adds warmth and depth of aroma as the main spirit.
Rum
Adds body and aroma as a main spirit in the blend.

The step that matters

Straining until bright. Cooling for 8 hours lets fine particles settle, and the jelly-bag must be run slowly so the cloudy solids are removed and the punch clears.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pineapple, sugar, brandy, rum, rice, cinnamon, nutmeg):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Coconutfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pineapple, sugar, brandy, rum, rice, cinnamon, nutmeg. 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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