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Tea Punch for Six

A flaming punch made with brandy, rum, curacao, sugar, citrus peels, spices, raisins, and black tea.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Tea Punch for Six

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Mix the brandy, rum, curacao, sugar, peels, cinnamon, cloves, and raisins in a bowl.

  2. Warm the mixture over hot water.

  3. Prepare a hot punch bowl and pour the warmed punch into it.

Flame and serve

  1. Set the punch on fire.

  2. Pour the strong black tea into the bowl when the punch is burning.

  3. Serve in teacups while flaming.

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. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Orange + cinnamontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,437 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Orange + limetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together937 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Apple + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,598 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

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

Brandy
Provides the main alcoholic base and carries the flavour of the other ingredients.
Lump sugar
Adds sweetness and helps balance the acidity of the citrus peels.
Black tea
Adds tannic bitterness and body, balancing the sweetness of the punch.
Rum
Adds additional alcohol and a rich, aromatic depth to the punch.

The step that matters

Pour the tea while the punch is burning. Alcohol vapour burns off as the punch flames, so adding tea at that moment dilutes and cools the mixture. Igniting the punch before the tea is added keeps the flames going and the drink from tasting harsh.

Swap the lime

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (brandy, rum, sugar, orange, apple, cinnamon, clove):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Pearfits better
  4. Limethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against brandy, rum, sugar, orange, apple, cinnamon, clove. 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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