Name: Rhine Wine and Champagne Punch
Ingredients: 2 quarts Rhine wine; 1 quart champagne; 4 lumps sugar; 2-3 drops Angostura bitters; Fruits (same as for Champagne Cup); 1 large piece of ice

Why it works: Wine and champagne work together. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 172 recipes. Both carry ethyl isobutyrate, which smells fruity, ethereal. The science ↓

Rhine Wine and Champagne Punch

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fruit

Soak the fruits in 1 quart of Rhine wine all day.

Assemble the punch

In a punch bowl, place the large piece of ice.
Pour the soaked fruits over the ice.
Add the remaining 2 quarts of Rhine wine and 1 quart of champagne.
Stir well to combine.

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.

Wine + champagnetop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together172 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).
Champagne + sugartop 25% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together424 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Wine + sugartop 31% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together9,581 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Rhine wine: Forms the main body of the punch and carries the flavour of the soaked fruit.
Champagne: Adds sparkle and a light, dry effervescence to the finished punch.
Fruits: Soaked in wine beforehand so their flavour and aroma pass into the punch.

“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.