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Drink

Milk Punch

Milk Punch is a chilled beverage made with milk, brandy, rum, eggs, sugar, nutmeg, and ice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Brandy and rum 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 ↓

Milk Punch

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the milk

  1. Sweeten the milk well.

  2. Add 2 tablespoons of brandy to the milk and stir well.

  3. Serve with ice.

Make the punch

  1. Scald 1 pint of milk (do not boil it).

  2. Beat 3 eggs to a froth with ¼ cup of sugar.

  3. Add ½ cup of brandy and 1 tablespoon of rum, along with a little nutmeg, and mix thoroughly.

  4. Add the scalded milk to the egg mixture.

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. Brandy + rumtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,058 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Milk + rumtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together967 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  4. Sugar + rumtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,908 recipes

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

  5. Milk + nutmegtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,685 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Beaten eggs thicken and enrich the punch, giving it body and a smooth texture.
Milk
Forms the liquid base and adds richness and creaminess to the punch.
Sugar
Sweetens the punch and helps the beaten eggs hold a froth.
Brandy
Adds its spirit flavour and aroma to the punch.
Rum
Adds a second layer of spirit flavour and aroma.

The step that matters

Scald the milk without boiling it, then add it to the eggs. Milk that is only scalded stays hot enough to warm the eggs without cooking them. Boiling can scorch the milk, and pouring very hot milk into eggs too quickly can scramble them and leave the punch lumpy.

Swap the nutmeg

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegthe original
  3. Gingerfits less well
  4. Clovefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, brandy, egg, sugar, 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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