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Philadelphia Fish House Punch

A punch made with rum, brandy, peach brandy, green tea, Curacao, citrus juice, ice, champagne, and fruit garnish.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and lime match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,289 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Philadelphia Fish House Punch

Ingredients

Directions

Make the punch

  1. In a large punch bowl, combine the rum, brandy, peach brandy, green tea, and red Curacao.

  2. Add the lemon juice and lime juice to the mixture.

Serve

  1. Just before serving, add the lump of ice and pour in the champagne.

  2. Garnish with slices of fruit such as pineapple, oranges, and strawberries.

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. Lemon + limetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,289 recipes

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

  2. Rum + pineappletop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  4. Peach + pineappletop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together168 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

Rum
Provides the base spirit and body of the punch.
Brandy
Adds depth and warmth as a second base spirit.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that balances the sweetness and spirits.
Lime juice
Adds tart, bright acidity that lifts the other flavors.
Dry champagne
Adds sparkle and lightness just before serving.

The step that matters

Add the champagne just before serving. Carbonation escapes quickly from wine and sparkling liquids, so pouring the champagne in at the last moment keeps the punch lively instead of flat.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rum, brandy, peach, green tea, lime, champagne, pineapple):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Mangofits better
  3. Apricotfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rum, brandy, peach, green tea, lime, champagne, pineapple. 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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