Name: Lemon Punch
Ingredients: 8 lemons; 4 quarts water; 1 quart sugar (scant); 1 box strawberries; 1 teaspoon ginger extract; 2 cups grated pineapple

Why it works: Lemon and ginger match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,154 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Lemon Punch

Ingredients

Directions

Juice the lemons and combine the juice with the water and sugar in a large pitcher.
Add the strawberries, ginger extract, and grated pineapple.
Stir well and chill before serving.

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.

Lemon + gingertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,154 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Ginger + pineappletop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together559 recipes

Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).
Lemon + pineappletop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,964 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Sugar + gingertop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together14,054 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together53,532 recipes

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

Sugar and ginger barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 14,054 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

Lemons: Provide the main sour, acidic flavour and the citrus aroma of the punch.
Sugar: Sweetens the punch and balances the acidity of the lemon juice.
Strawberries: Add fruity sweetness, colour and aroma to the punch.
Pineapple: Adds tropical sweetness and fruity body to the punch.