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Baltimore Punch

A chilled rum, brandy, port, Curacao, tea, soda punch with lemon and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Rum and champagne match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 137 recipes. Both carry ethyl isobutyrate, which smells fruity, ethereal. The science ↓

Baltimore Punch

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. While the tea is hot, add the sugar and juice from the lemons.

  2. Mix thoroughly and strain through a cotton cloth.

  3. When cool, add the brandy, rum, and Curacao.

Assemble and serve

  1. Place a clean cake of ice in the punch bowl.

  2. Add the stock.

  3. Add soda to the stock.

  4. Stir gently.

  5. Serve immediately.

  6. Place the ice outside the bowl to maintain the punch's strength.

  7. Add a bottle of champagne for every three bottles of soda.

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 + champagnetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together137 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

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

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

  3. Brandy + champagnetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together169 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  4. Rum + black teatop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19 recipes

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

  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

Jamaica rum
Adds strength and a deep, rich flavour to the punch.
Brandy
Adds alcohol strength and a warm, fruity aroma.
Port
Adds body, sweetness and deep colour.
White sugar
Sweetens the punch and balances the sour lemon juice.
Lemons
Provide acidity that brightens the sweet and strong flavours.
Strong black tea
Adds tannin for a dry, slightly bitter backbone.

The step that matters

Add the spirits only when the mixture is cool. Alcohol carries delicate aromas that heat drives off, so adding brandy, rum and Curacao to hot tea and sugar would dull the punch's fragrance and flavour.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rum, brandy, sugar, black tea, champagne):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Pineapplefits better
  3. Strawberryfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rum, brandy, sugar, black tea, champagne. 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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