Why it works: Lemon and sugar 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 ↓
Claret Punch
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Cover the sliced lemons with powdered sugar and let it stand for 10 minutes.
Add ice water and stir well.
Pour in the claret.
Serve
Place poured ice into each glass before filling with the mixture.
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.
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Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked 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
- Claret
- Forms the wine base and supplies the main flavour and colour of the punch.
- Lemons
- Add acidity and fragrant citrus oils that brighten the wine.
- Powdered sugar
- Sweetens the punch and draws juice out of the lemon slices as it stands.
- Ice water
- Dilutes the punch slightly and chills it.
The step that matters
Letting the lemons stand with sugar. Standing time lets the sugar dissolve into the juice that the lemon releases, so the sweetness and citrus flavour blend before the wine and water are added. Stirring in the liquids too early can leave grainy sugar at the bottom.
“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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