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Drink

Roman Punch, Iced

A chilled punch made with powdered sugar, lemon and orange juices, egg whites, rum, green tea, brandy, champagne, and optional pineapple syrup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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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 ↓

Roman Punch, Iced

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syrup

  1. Combine the powdered sugar, lemon juice, and orange juice in a bowl.

  2. Add the thin lemon rind and thin orange rind.

  3. Let the mixture infuse for 1 hour.

  4. Strain the syrup through muslin.

Make the punch

  1. Gradually add the beaten egg whites.

  2. Freeze the punch, stirring vigorously with a spatula.

  3. Mix the rum, green tea, brandy, and champagne in a separate container.

  4. Add ice to the mixture.

  5. Stir until dissolved.

  6. If the punch is too thick, thin it with more champagne.

Serve

  1. Serve in high glasses between the roast and game courses.

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 + orangetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,634 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  2. Rum + champagnetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together137 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  3. Rum + brandytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,058 recipes

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

  4. Brandy + champagnetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together169 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  5. Rum + green teatop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together60 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

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

What each ingredient does

Powdered sugar
Sweetens the punch and dissolves into the juice to form the syrup base.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that balances the sweetness and brightens the flavour.
Egg whites
Whipped to a firm froth, they add a light, airy texture to the punch.
Rum
Contributes the main spirit flavour and aroma to the punch.
Champagne
Adds sparkle and liquid volume, and thins the punch when it is too thick.

The step that matters

Gradually add the beaten egg whites. Adding the whites slowly lets them fold into the syrup without deflating the firm froth, keeping the punch light and evenly textured rather than lumpy or watery.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, orange, egg, rum, green tea, brandy, champagne):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Pineapplefits better
  3. Peachfits about as well
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, orange, egg, rum, green tea, brandy, champagne. 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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