Name: Russian Punch
Ingredients: 1 pint California claret; ⅔ cup sugar; 1 tablespoon whole cloves; 1 cup boiling water

Why it works: Sugar and clove are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 26% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,182 recipes. Both carry 1-penten-3-one, which smells fish, pungent. The science ↓

Russian Punch

Ingredients

1 pint California claret
⅔ cup sugar
1 tablespoon whole cloves
1 cup boiling water

Directions

In a granite saucepan, combine the claret, sugar, cloves, and boiling water.
Cover and heat quickly, then simmer for 5 minutes.
Strain the mixture and serve immediately in tall glasses.

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.

Sugar + clovetop 26% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together17,182 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

Sugar and clove barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 17,182 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: Provides the main wine body, flavor and tannin structure of the punch.
Sugar: Adds sweetness that balances the wine's acidity and tannins.
Whole cloves: Infuse warm spice aroma into the liquid as it heats and simmers.

“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.