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Pomegranate Punch

A chilled fruit punch made with pomegranate, orange, pineapple, and lemon juices sweetened with cinnamon‑spiced sugar syrup and diluted with Vichy water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 ↓

Pomegranate Punch

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Juice the pomegranates, oranges, pineapple, and lemons.

  2. In a saucepan, boil the sugar syrup with the cinnamon stick and cloves.

Assemble and serve

  1. Combine the juices with the cooled sugar syrup.

  2. Add the Vichy water and stir gently.

  3. Serve over cracked ice.

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. Pomegranate + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together94 recipes

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

  3. Orange + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,634 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  4. Pomegranate + orangetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together116 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Pomegranate juice
Provides the main flavor and tart, fruity character of the punch.
Sugar syrup
Adds sweetness that balances the sharp acidity of the citrus and pomegranate juices.
Lemons
Add acidity that brightens the punch and offsets the sweetness.
Vichy water
Adds carbonation, giving the punch lightness and a lively fizz.

The step that matters

Adding the Vichy water. Carbonation escapes quickly, so the Vichy water should be added last and stirred gently. Vigorous stirring or early addition leaves the punch flat.

Swap the pineapple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pomegranate, orange, lemon, sugar, syrup, cinnamon, clove):

  1. Limefits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Pineapplethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pomegranate, orange, lemon, sugar, syrup, 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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