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Lord Wolseley's Punch

A chilled banana and champagne punch with cherry syrup, pineapple, and shaved ice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Banana and pineapple match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 733 recipes. Both carry ethyl isobutyrate, which smells fruity, ethereal. The science ↓

Lord Wolseley's Punch

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Peel and slice the bananas lengthwise.

  2. Sprinkle powdered sugar and cherry syrup over the bananas and let them steep for 3 hours.

Assemble and serve

  1. Add the grated pineapple, shaved ice, and Montserrat champagne.

  2. Serve immediately.

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. Banana + pineappletop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together733 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  2. Cherry + pineappletop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together537 recipes

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

  3. Banana + cherrytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together187 recipes

    Shared aroma: n-butyl acetate (pear, banana).

  4. Pineapple + orangetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,664 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  5. Pineapple + champagnetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together97 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Bananas
Provide the main fruit flavor and soft texture that give the punch its body.
White sugar
Adds sweetness and draws juice out of the bananas as they steep.
Cherry syrup
Adds sweetness and fruity flavor that colors and flavors the punch.
Champagne
Adds fizz and lightness that make the punch feel refreshing.
Grated pineapple
Adds acidity and bright tropical fruit flavor that balances the sweetness.

The step that matters

Serve immediately. Carbonation escapes from champagne quickly once it is opened and mixed, so the fizz fades if the punch sits. Assembling it just before serving keeps the drink lively.

Swap the orange

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (banana, sugar, cherry, syrup, pineapple, champagne):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Strawberryfits better
  3. Peachfits better
  4. Orangethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against banana, sugar, cherry, syrup, pineapple, 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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