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Mint Punch

A frozen mint punch made with water, sugar, lemon juice, orange juice, egg white, and crème de menthe.

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

Mint Punch

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. In a large bowl, combine water, sugar, lemon juice, and orange juice.

  2. Beat the egg white until frothy and set aside.

Freeze

  1. Just before the mixture is frozen, fold in the beaten egg white.

  2. Finish freezing the punch mixture, then stir in the crème de menthe.

Serve

  1. Pack the punch for 1 hour before serving.

  2. Serve in glasses.

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

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

  2. Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Lemon + eggtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

  4. Sugar + orangetop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together19,212 recipes

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

  5. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Sugar and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Egg white
Whipped to foam, it adds an airy, light texture to the frozen punch.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and keeps the frozen punch softer rather than rock-hard.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the sweetness and balances the flavor.
Orange juice
Adds fruity sweetness and acidity, rounding out the citrus flavor.
Crème de menthe cordial
Provides the mint flavor and aroma that defines the punch.

The step that matters

Fold in the egg white just before freezing finishes. Folding the beaten egg white in at the right moment keeps its air trapped. Added too early or too late, the foam deflates or the mixture stays dense, so the punch loses its light, fluffy texture.

Swap the orange

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

  1. Orangethe original
  2. Vanillafits about as well
  3. Limefits less well
  4. Raisinfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, lemon, egg. 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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