Why it works: Brandy and rum 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
Ingredients
Directions
Rub the sugar over the lemons until it absorbs the yellow part of the skins.
Squeeze the lemon juice onto the sugar and mix well with a bruiser.
Add boiling water until the mixture is cool and to your taste.
Mix in equal parts brandy and rum, adjusting the quantity to your preference.
Strain the mixture if desired to remove pulp.
Optionally, add ½ pint of porter for richness.
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.
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Brandy + rumtop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,058 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Sugar + rumtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,908 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Sugar + brandytop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together11,939 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Lemon + rumtop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,341 recipes
Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
Lemon and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Lemons
- Their juice supplies the sharp acidity that balances the sugar.
- Double-refined sugar
- Sweetens the punch and, rubbed on the lemon skins, draws out their aromatic oils.
- Brandy and rum
- Provide the spirit base and warming alcohol that carries the punch's flavour.
- Porter
- Adds a dark, malty richness and some body to the finished drink.
The step that matters
Rub the sugar over the lemons. Sugar abrasion pulls the oils from the zest into the sugar; if the lemons are rubbed too little, the punch lacks citrus aroma, and too much pressure can bring bitter white pith into the drink.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, brandy, rum):
- Vanillafits better
- Pineapplefits better
- Apricotfits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, 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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