Name: Prince Regent Punch
Ingredients: 6 quarts of water; 1 quart of strong green tea; 2 dozen lemons, sliced; 1 gallon of whisky; 1 quart of curaçao cordial; 2 pineapples, sliced; 2 pounds of loaf sugar; strawberries, for garnish (optional)

Why it works: Lemon and pineapple are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,964 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Prince Regent Punch

Ingredients

Directions

In a large bowl, combine the water and strong green tea.
Add the sliced lemons, whisky, curaçao cordial, and sliced pineapples.
Stir in the loaf sugar until dissolved.
Float strawberries over the top if they are in season.

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 + pineappletop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,964 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Whisky + pineappletop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together36 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).
Green tea + lemontop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together104 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Green tea + pineappletop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together30 recipes

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

Smell alikelow

Cooked together53,532 recipes

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

Lemon and sugar 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

Loaf sugar: Dissolves into the liquid to add sweetness that balances the lemon and spirit.
Lemons: Supply acidity that brightens the punch and balances its sweetness.
Whisky: Provides the alcoholic base and warming aroma of the punch.
Green tea: Adds mild astringency and a subtle tannic bitterness that gives the punch depth.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (green tea, whisky, pineapple, sugar):

Vanillafits better
Applefits better
Peachfits better
Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against green tea, whisky, pineapple, sugar. 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.