Name: Punch, to Make
Ingredients: 2 ripe lemons; 1 Seville orange; Fine loaf sugar; Boiling water; Optional: 1 tablespoon rice (for each quart of water); Best Jamaica rum or French brandy; Pure hot or cold water

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 ↓

Punch, to Make

Ingredients

Directions

Rub the yellow rind of one lemon with lumps of fine loaf sugar until saturated.
Add the sugar lumps to a bowl.
Thinly pare the other lemon and the Seville orange, adding the rinds to the bowl.
Add plenty of sugar to the bowl.
Pour in a small quantity of boiling water and squeeze in the juice of the fruit.
Add a little more hot water and mix well with a punch ladle.
If desired, boil 1 tablespoon of rice in each quart of water for added softness.
Set aside a little of the sherbet to taste and adjust sweetness or acidity as needed.

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.

Lemon + orangetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together10,634 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Lemon + ricetop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,366 recipes

Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
Orange + ricetop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,067 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).
Orange + rumtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together801 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Sugar + rumtop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,908 recipes

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