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Hot Brandy Punch

A warm punch made with rum, brandy, sugar, lemon, and boiling water, optionally spiced with nutmeg.

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

Hot Brandy Punch

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Put the sugar into a punch bowl.

  2. Add the lemon juice and mix well.

  3. Pour the boiling water over the mixture.

  4. Add the rum and brandy, then mix thoroughly.

  5. Serve the punch warm, adding nutmeg if desired.

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

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

  2. Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Rum + nutmegtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together646 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

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

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

  5. Brandy + nutmegtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,311 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

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

What each ingredient does

Sugar
Sweetens the punch and balances the sharpness of the lemon and spirits.
Lemon
Adds acidity that brightens the punch and cuts the sweetness.
Jamaica rum
Adds deep, rich flavour and aroma to the punch.
Brandy
Adds warmth and fruity depth to the punch.

Swap the nutmeg

The recipe marks nutmeg as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rum, brandy, sugar, lemon):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegthe original
  3. Gingerfits about as well
  4. Peppermintfits less well

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