Name: Roman Punch
Ingredients: 1 tablespoon sugar; 1 tablespoon raspberry syrup; juice of ½ lemon; 1 teaspoon curaçao; ⅓ cup Jamaica rum; ¼ cup brandy; shaved ice; 1 teaspoon port wine; seasonal berries or fruit

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

Make the punch

In a large tumbler, mix sugar, raspberry syrup, lemon juice, curaçao, Jamaica rum, and brandy.
Fill the glass with shaved ice.
Top with port wine and add seasonal berries or fruit.

Serve

Drink the punch through a straw.

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.

Rum + brandytop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,058 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Rum + port winetop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together22 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).
Sugar + syruptop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,842 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Brandy + port winetop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together127 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
Raspberry + lemontop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,109 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Jamaica rum: Provides the main spirit backbone and warming strength of the punch.
Brandy: Adds depth and a rounded, fruity warmth to the spirit base.
Sugar: Adds sweetness that balances the acidity of the lemon juice.
Lemon juice: Brings acidity that brightens the punch and offsets the sweetness and alcohol.
Raspberry syrup: Contributes sweetness and raspberry flavour to the punch.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, raspberry, syrup, rum, brandy, port wine):

Vanillafits better
Figfits better
Pineapplefits better
Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, raspberry, syrup, rum, brandy, port wine. 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.