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Drink

Milk Punch

A punch made with lemon, Seville orange, rum, brandy, Madeira, water, spices, and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Milk Punch

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the base

  1. Rub the sugar on the lemons and oranges to extract the essence from the peel.

  2. Squeeze the fruit and strain the juice.

  3. Put the sugar and juice into an earthen pan and pour the boiling water over it.

Blend the punch

  1. Using a quart jug in each hand, dip out the liquid and pour it back rapidly for 20 minutes.

  2. Add the spirits and wine one bottle at a time, mixing until smooth, about 45 minutes.

  3. Boil the spice in the milk, then pour it into the punch and stir quickly.

  4. Cover the pan with an earthen lid and a thick cloth, letting it sit undisturbed for 8 hours.

Strain and bottle

  1. Strain it twice through flannel, or three times if not bright, then bottle and cork securely.

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. Nutmeg + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Lemon + orangetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,634 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  3. Orange + cinnamontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,437 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

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

  5. Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

What each ingredient does

Loaf sugar
Sweetens the punch and draws essential oils from the citrus peel.
Milk
Softens the punch and clarifies it as the milk curds bind impurities.
Old rum
Provides the main spirit base and characteristic flavour.
French brandy
Adds body and warming depth to the spirit blend.
Old madeira
Adds nutty, mellow wine flavour to the blend.
Lemons
Supply acidity and aromatic oils from the peel and juice.

The step that matters

Boil the spice in the milk, then pour it into the punch and stir quickly.. Pouring hot milk into the punch must be done quickly and with stirring so the milk curdles evenly; the curds carry suspended particles down, clarifying the drink.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, orange, rum, brandy, nutmeg, cinnamon, milk):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Applefits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, orange, rum, brandy, nutmeg, cinnamon, milk. 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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