Why it works: Wine and brandy are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,427 recipes. Both carry gamma-nonanolactone, which smells coconut, sweet. The science ↓
Roman Punch
Ingredients
Directions
Make the punch
Mix the wine, brandy, sugar, and lemon flavoring together until the sugar dissolves.
Chill the mixture thoroughly before serving.
Serve
Serve over ice.
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.
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Wine + brandytop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,427 recipes
Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).
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Wine + lemontop 13% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together6,157 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Brandy + sugartop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together11,939 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Brandy + lemontop 23% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together5,351 recipes
Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
Sugar and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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
- Wine
- Provides the liquid base and its own fruity acidity and flavor to the punch.
- Brandy
- Adds strength and warming aroma, and helps keep the punch from tasting flat.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the punch and balances the acidity and alcohol.
The step that matters
Dissolve the sugar fully before chilling. Sugar that stays grainy will settle to the bottom and leave the punch unevenly sweet. Stirring until clear ensures every serving tastes the same.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (wine, brandy, sugar):
- Vanillafits better
- Apricotfits better
- Applefits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against wine, brandy, sugar. 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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