Name: Strawberry Punch
Ingredients: 5 quarts strawberries; 5 pounds sugar; juice of 2 lemons; 6 oranges; 1 grated pineapple; 1 quart fresh dark red berries; 10 pounds cracked ice

Why it works: Lemon and orange match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,634 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Strawberry Punch

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the juice

Scald the strawberries and press out the juice.
Strain the juice and add 1 pound of sugar for every quart of berries.
Mix in the juice of 2 lemons, 6 oranges, and 1 grated pineapple.

Serve

Just before serving, pour the mixture over 10 pounds of cracked ice.
Serve with toothpicks.

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.

Lemon + orangetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together10,634 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Orange + pineappletop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,664 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).
Lemon + pineappletop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,964 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together53,532 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Sugar + pineappletop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together4,841 recipes

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

Sugar and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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

Strawberries: Provide the main flavor and color, and their juice forms the base of the punch.
Sugar: Sweetens the punch and balances the acidity of the citrus juices.
Lemons: Add acidity that brightens the sweetness and flavor of the punch.
Oranges: Add sweet citrus juice that rounds out the flavor and adds acidity.
Pineapple: Adds tropical sweetness and a fruity aroma to the punch.
Cracked ice: Chills the punch and dilutes it slightly as it melts.