Skip to main content
Drink

Milk Punoh

A chilled milk punch made with shaved ice, powdered sugar, brandy, rum, fresh milk, and nutmeg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Brandy and rum are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,058 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Milk Punoh

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a large bar glass, combine the shaved ice and powdered sugar.

  2. Add the brandy, St. Croix rum, and Jamaica rum.

  3. Fill the glass with fresh milk and mix well.

  4. Strain the mixture into a serving glass.

  5. Garnish with a little nutmeg on top.

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. Brandy + rumtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,058 recipes

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

  2. Rum + nutmegtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together646 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  3. Rum + milktop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together967 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  4. Sugar + rumtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,908 recipes

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

  5. Milk + nutmegtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,685 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Brandy
Adds aromatic depth and a warm, fruity flavour that balances the milk.
St. croix rum
Contributes sweet, rounded rum flavour to the punch.
Jamaica rum
Adds a fuller, more pungent rum character to the punch.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the drink and dissolves easily into the cold liquid.
Fresh milk
Provides creamy body and softens the harshness of the spirits.

Swap the nutmeg

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegthe original
  3. Gingerfits less well
  4. Clovefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, brandy, rum, milk. 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.

More milk punch recipes

You might also like