Skip to main content
Drink

Punch a LA Romaine

A chilled punch made with lemon and orange juice, powdered sugar, egg whites, Champagne, and rum.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 ↓

Punch a LA Romaine

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. Combine the lemon and orange juice with the powdered sugar and orange rind.

  2. Strain the mixture through a sieve.

  3. Gradually stir in the beaten egg whites until frothy.

Chill and finish

  1. Place the bowl in an ice pail and let it freeze slightly.

  2. Stir in the Champagne and Rum briskly.

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. Champagne + rumtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together137 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

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

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

  4. Orange + champagnetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together260 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  5. Lemon + champagnetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together404 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg whites
Whipped into the mixture to create a light, frothy texture.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the punch and dissolves easily into the citrus juice.
Lemon juice
Provides acidity that balances the sweetness of the sugar and liqueurs.
Champagne
Adds sparkling carbonation and a light, dry character to the punch.
Rum
Contributes alcohol and depth of flavor to the punch.

The step that matters

Stir in the egg whites until frothy. Egg whites must be added gradually so they foam and incorporate evenly; adding them too fast can cause lumps or a dense, uneven froth that does not hold its lightness.

Swap the orange

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

  1. Pineapplefits better
  2. Vanillafits about as well
  3. Raspberryfits about as well
  4. Orangethe original

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

You might also like

Orange SyrupOrange Syrup47 recipesLemon WheyLemon Whey33 recipesLemon WineLemon Wine31 recipesOrange Water IceOrange Water Ice28 recipes