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Whisky Punch

A simple punch made with whisky, sugar, and lemon juice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 53,532 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Whisky Punch

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Juice the lemons and strain the juice.

Mix and serve

  1. In a large bowl, combine the whisky, sugar, and lemon juice.

  2. Stir until the sugar is fully dissolved.

  3. Serve over ice or chill before serving.

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. Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

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

  2. Whisky + sugartop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,008 recipes

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

  3. Whisky + lemontop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together369 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

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

Whisky
Provides the main spirit base and most of the punch's flavour and strength.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the acidity of the lemon juice.
Lemons
Supply acidity and fresh citrus aroma that brighten the spirit.

The step that matters

Stir until the sugar is fully dissolved. Undissolved sugar settles to the bottom, leaving the punch unevenly sweet. Stirring the sugar into the liquid, ideally before chilling, lets it dissolve fully so every serving tastes balanced.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Applefits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against whisky, 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.

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