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Drink

Pot-Still Punch

A punch made with green tea, orange jelly, honey, Irish whisky, maraschino, and rum.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Whisky and rum match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 107 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Pot-Still Punch

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Make 1 pint of green tea and strain it into a jug.

  2. Mix in 1 pint of orange jelly and 2 tablespoons of honey.

  3. Stand the jug in hot water.

  4. Heat a punch bowl by keeping it in boiling water, then wipe it dry.

Assemble and serve

  1. Pour the tea mixture into the bowl, then add 2 bottles of Irish whisky, 2 wineglassfuls of maraschino, and 1 wineglassful of rum.

  2. Stir the mixture thoroughly and serve.

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. Whisky + rumtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together107 recipes

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

  2. Honey + whiskytop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together80 recipes

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

  3. Green tea + honeytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  4. Green tea + rumtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together60 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

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

Green tea
Provides the liquid base and a light, mildly bitter backbone for the punch.
Orange jelly
Adds sweetness, fruit flavour and body to the liquid.
Honey
Adds sweetness and a smooth, rounded mouthfeel.
Irish whisky
Supplies the main alcoholic strength and warming spirit flavour.
Maraschino
Adds cherry-like sweetness and aromatic depth.
Rum
Adds further spirit body and a richer, sweeter note.

The step that matters

Heating the punch bowl and jug. Warming the bowl and jug keeps the punch hot when served, since a cold vessel would draw heat out of the liquid. Wiping the bowl dry prevents water from diluting the punch.

Swap the orange

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (green tea, honey, whisky, rum):

  1. Pineapplefits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Applefits better
  4. Orangethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against green tea, honey, whisky, 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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