Name: Punch Jelly
Ingredients: ½ pound loaf sugar; Juice and peel of 2 lemons; 1¼ ounces isinglass; ¼ cup rum; ¼ cup wine; ¼ cup brandy; ½ cup water (for dissolving isinglass); Water (for boiling lemon peel)

Why it works: Rum and brandy are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,058 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Punch Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Dissolve the isinglass in ½ cup of water with a little sugar and lemon peel, cleared with the white of an egg.
Boil the ½ pound of sugar in a small teacup of water until it reaches candy height.
Boil the lemon peel in a little water.

Make the jelly

In a basin, combine the rum and syrup, then mix in the brandy, wine, lemon juice, and the water used to boil the peel.
Mix everything well and add the dissolved isinglass.
Pour the mixture into a mold.

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.

Rum + brandytop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,058 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Wine + brandytop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,427 recipes

Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).
Rum + winetop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together230 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-propylphenol (allspice, anise).
Lemon + winetop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together6,157 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Sugar + rumtop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,908 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Isinglass: Sets the liquid into a firm jelly as it cools.
Loaf sugar: Adds sweetness and, boiled to candy height, forms the syrup base.
Rum: Adds alcohol flavour and aroma to the punch.
Brandy: Adds warm, fruity alcohol flavour and aroma.
Lemon juice: Adds acidity that balances the sweetness and brightens the flavour.