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Oxford Punch

A citrus punch made with lemon and Seville orange peels, juices, calf's feet jelly, water, sugar, and spirits.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Oxford Punch

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 ↓

Oxford Punch

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the base

  1. Rub the grated rinds of 3 lemons with sugar lumps to extract essence.

  2. In a large jug, combine the lemon and Seville orange peels, juices, and calf's feet jelly. Stir well, then pour in 2 quarts of boiling water.

  3. Cover the jug and let it sit near the fire for 15 minutes.

  4. Strain the mixture into a punch bowl or jug.

Sweeten and finish

  1. Sweeten with capillaire and add white wine, brandy, rum, and orange shrub.

  2. Stir the punch as you pour in the spirits.

  3. If not sweet enough, add more sugar or capillaire to taste.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Brandy + rumtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,058 recipes

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

  3. White wine + rumtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together113 recipes

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

  4. White wine + brandytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together620 recipes

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

  5. Lemon + white winetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,832 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

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

What each ingredient does

Lemons
Their juice and oils give the punch its sharp acidity and bright aroma.
Seville oranges
Their juice and thinly cut peel add bitterness, acidity and fragrant oils.
Calf's feet jelly
Its gelatine gives the punch body and a smooth, silky mouthfeel.
Capillaire
A sugar syrup that sweetens the punch evenly as it is stirred in.
French brandy
Adds alcoholic strength and warming depth of flavour.
Jamaica rum
Adds alcoholic strength and a rich, aromatic sweetness.

The step that matters

Stir the punch as you pour in the spirits. Spirits are denser and less sweet than the mixture, so without stirring they can sit in layers and the punch tastes uneven from top to bottom.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (orange, white wine, brandy, rum):

  1. Pineapplefits better
  2. Apricotfits better
  3. Applefits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against orange, white wine, brandy, 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.

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