Name: Cold Punch
Ingredients: 1 pint sugar; ½ pint lemon juice; 1 pint pale brandy; 1 pint pale rum; 1 tablespoon arrack; 5 quarts cold water

Why it works: Brandy and rum are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,058 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Cold Punch

Ingredients

Directions

In a large container, combine the sugar and lemon juice.
Add the pale brandy, pale rum, and arrack.
Pour in the cold water and stir well.
Let the mixture sit for some time before decanting.

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.

Brandy + rumtop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,058 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).
Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together53,532 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Sugar + brandytop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together11,939 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Lemon + rumtop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,341 recipes

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

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

Sugar: Adds sweetness and balances the sharpness of the lemon juice.
Lemon juice: Adds acidity that brightens the punch and balances the sweetness.
Pale brandy: Adds spirit strength and fruity aroma to the punch.
Pale rum: Adds spirit strength and a rounded sweet aroma to the punch.