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Champagne Punch

A chilled punch made with champagne, hock, powdered sugar, brandy, Maraschino liqueur, curaçao, fresh fruit, mint, and club soda.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Champagne Punch

Why it works: Champagne and brandy work together. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 169 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Champagne Punch

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Combine the champagne, hock, powdered sugar, brandy, Maraschino liqueur, and curaçao in a large punch bowl. Stir gently until the sugar is dissolved.

  2. Add fresh fruit and top with club soda. Garnish with a bunch of mint.

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. Champagne + brandytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together169 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Champagne + minttop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together64 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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

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

  4. Brandy + minttop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together140 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  5. Champagne + sugartop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together424 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

Champagne
Provides the sparkling base and light, dry character of the punch.
Hock
Adds a lighter, fruity wine body that dilutes the stronger spirits.
Powdered sugar
Dissolves easily into the liquid to add sweetness without grittiness.
Brandy
Adds warmth and depth from its spirit content and aromatic notes.
Maraschino liqueur
Contributes cherry-like sweetness and an almond-tinged aroma.

The step that matters

Stir gently until the sugar is dissolved. Vigorous stirring knocks carbonation out of the champagne and club soda, leaving the punch flat. Gentle stirring dissolves the sugar while keeping the bubbles lively.

Swap the mint

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (champagne, sugar, brandy):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Clovefits better
  3. Nutmegfits better
  4. Mintthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against champagne, sugar, brandy. 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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