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Drink

Punch a LA Romaine

A chilled punch made with powdered sugar, lemon and orange juice, egg whites, champagne, rum, and ice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and orange match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,634 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Punch a LA Romaine

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syrup

  1. Mix powdered sugar with lemon juice and the thin yellow rind of the oranges until dissolved.

  2. Strain the syrup and mix in the beaten egg whites until frothy.

Freeze and serve

  1. Freeze the mixture until nearly solid.

  2. Quickly stir in the champagne and rum.

  3. Serve immediately in small goblets or champagne 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.

  1. Lemon + orangetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,634 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  2. Champagne + rumtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together137 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  3. Orange + rumtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together801 recipes

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

  4. Orange + champagnetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together260 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  5. Lemon + champagnetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together404 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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

What each ingredient does

Powdered sugar
Sweetens the punch and dissolves into the lemon juice to form the base syrup.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that balances the sweetness and brightens the flavor.
Egg whites
Whip into a foam that gives the punch a light, frothy texture.
Champagne
Adds carbonation and a dry, lively character to the punch.
Jamaica rum
Contributes alcohol and a rich, molasses-like aroma and flavor.

The step that matters

Quickly stir in the champagne and rum. Champagne loses its carbonation quickly once mixed and warmed, so adding it at the last moment while the mixture is still nearly frozen keeps the punch lively and prevents it from going flat.

Swap the orange

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, lemon, egg, champagne, rum):

  1. Pineapplefits better
  2. Vanillafits about as well
  3. Raspberryfits about as well
  4. Orangethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, lemon, egg, champagne, rum. 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.

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