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Drink

Roman Punch

A chilled fruit ice drink with rum, brandy, egg whites, and powdered sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Roman Punch

Why it works: Rum and brandy 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 ↓

Roman Punch

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Add ½ cup rum to 1 quart of fruit ice.

  2. For a finer version, when the ice is half frozen, add 3 beaten egg whites, 6 tablespoons powdered sugar, ⅓ cup rum, and ⅓ cup brandy. Mix well until combined.

Serve

  1. In serving, place 1 teaspoon of rum in each glass.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Rum + brandytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,058 recipes

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

  2. Rum + sugartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,908 recipes

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

  3. Egg + brandytop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,340 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetoin (butter, cream).

  4. Sugar + brandytop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together11,939 recipes

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

  5. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

Sugar and brandy barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 11,939 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

Fruit ice
Forms the frozen base that gives the punch its icy, sippable texture.
Egg whites
Whipped into the half-frozen ice to add a light, airy, foamy texture.
Powdered sugar
Dissolves easily into the mixture, adding sweetness and softening the ice's bite.
Rum
Adds aroma and flavor, and lowers the freezing point so the punch stays softer.
Brandy
Adds aroma and depth of flavor, and further lowers the freezing point.

The step that matters

Adding the egg whites to the half-frozen ice. If the ice is fully frozen, the egg whites and sugar will not blend in evenly and the punch will stay hard and grainy. Beating the whites into a partly frozen mixture gives a smoother, lighter result.

“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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