Name: Milk Punch
Ingredients: 1 quart of milk; 2 tablespoons of sugar; 4 tablespoons of rum or brandy

Why it works: Milk and rum work together. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 967 recipes. Both carry ethyl 2-methylbutyrate, which smells fruity, apple. The science ↓

Milk Punch

Ingredients

1 quart of milk
2 tablespoons of sugar
4 tablespoons of rum or brandy

Directions

Combine the milk, sugar, and rum or brandy in a covered glass jar and shake until thoroughly blended.

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.

Milk + rumtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together967 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).
Sugar + rumtop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,908 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together77,875 recipes

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

Milk and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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

Milk: Forms the drink's body and gives it a smooth, creamy texture.
Sugar: Adds sweetness that balances the alcohol and the richness of the milk.
Rum or brandy: Adds aroma and flavor, and its alcohol helps keep the drink stable.

“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.