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Drink

Roman Punch

A chilled punch made with fruit ice, rum, brandy, egg whites, and powdered sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Roman Punch

Why it works: Rum and brandy 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 ↓

Roman Punch

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Add ½ cup of rum to 1 quart of fruit ice.

  2. In a separate bowl, beat 3 egg whites until stiff, then mix in 6 tablespoons of powdered sugar.

Assemble and serve

  1. When the fruit ice is half frozen, fold in the egg white mixture, ⅓ cup of rum, and ⅓ cup of brandy.

  2. Serve with a teaspoon of rum in each glass.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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

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

  2. Rum + sugartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,908 recipes

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

  3. Egg + brandytop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,340 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetoin (butter, cream).

  4. Sugar + brandytop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together11,939 recipes

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

  5. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Sugar and brandy barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 11,939 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

Egg whites
Whipped to stiff peaks, they add a light, airy foam to the frozen mixture.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the whipped egg whites and helps them hold their stable structure.
Rum
Adds aroma and flavor, and softens the ice so it stays scoopable.
Brandy
Adds aroma and warmth, and lowers the freezing point for a softer texture.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg white mixture. Fold gently so the whipped egg whites keep their air. Stirring hard knocks out the foam and leaves a dense, flat result.

“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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