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Punch a LA Romaine

A chilled punch made with lemon ice, egg whites, rum, brandy, green tea, and champagne.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Rum and champagne match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 137 recipes. Both carry ethyl isobutyrate, which smells fruity, ethereal. The science ↓

Punch a LA Romaine

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Combine lemon ice and beaten egg whites in a large bowl.

  2. Add rum and brandy until the ice liquefies.

  3. Stir in the strong green tea and a little champagne.

  4. 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. Rum + champagnetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together137 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  2. Rum + brandytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,058 recipes

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

  3. Brandy + champagnetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together169 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  4. Rum + green teatop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together60 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  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

Lemon ice
Provides the base body, sweetness and citrus flavour that the liquid additions are poured over.
Egg whites
Whipped foam adds a light, airy texture to the punch.
Rum
Adds alcohol and warm, sweet aroma while helping the lemon ice melt.
Brandy
Adds depth and aroma and helps the lemon ice liquefy.
Strong green tea
Adds a mild tannic bitterness that balances the sweetness of the ice.

The step that matters

Add rum and brandy until the ice liquefies. Adding the spirits gradually lets the lemon ice melt into the liquid while the egg white foam stays light. Adding too much at once can cause the foam to collapse and the punch to become thin and watery.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, rum, brandy, green tea, champagne):

  1. Pineapplefits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Raspberryfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, rum, brandy, green tea, 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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