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Drink

Oxford Punch

A citrus punch made with lemon, Seville orange, calf's-feet jelly, water, capillaire, sherry, Cognac, rum, and orange shrub.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Oxford Punch

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 ↓

Oxford Punch

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fruit

  1. Rub the rinds of 3 lemons with sugar to extract the flavor.

  2. Peel 2 more lemons and 2 Seville oranges.

  3. Cut the peeled lemons and oranges thin.

  4. Juice all the lemons and oranges.

Make the punch

  1. Combine the peels and juice with the calf's-feet jelly in a large jug.

  2. Pour in the boiling water and let it sit on the hob for 20 minutes.

  3. Strain the mixture into a large bowl.

  4. Stir in the remaining ingredients one by one.

  5. Add more sugar 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.

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.

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

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

  2. Cognac brandy + rumtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together68 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-propylphenol (allspice, anise).

  3. Sherry + rumtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together146 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  4. Sherry + cognac brandytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together41 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Lemons
Provide acidity and aromatic oils from the rinds and juice.
Seville oranges
Add bitter aroma and acidity from the peel and juice.
Calf's-feet jelly
Adds body and gelatin for a richer, silkier texture.
Sherry
Adds body, depth and sweetness to the punch.
Cognac brandy
Adds alcohol strength and warm aroma.
Old rum
Adds alcohol strength and a deeper, molasses-like flavor.

The step that matters

Pour in the boiling water and let it sit for 20 minutes. Hot water draws oils and flavor from the peel and sugar into the liquid. Letting it steep for the stated time extracts flavor without leaving the mixture bitter, so timing matters.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (orange, sherry, cognac brandy, rum):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against orange, sherry, cognac brandy, 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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