Name: Punch Jelly
Ingredients: 1 ounce isinglass; 5-6 teacupfuls water; 1½ cups brandy; 1½ cups rum; 1 cup lemon juice; ½ pound pounded loaf sugar

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 Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

Make the jelly

Dissolve isinglass in water.
Strain the mixture and add boiling water.
Stir in brandy, rum, lemon juice, and sugar until dissolved.

Set and serve

Pour into a shape and let set.

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.

Brandy + rumtop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,058 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Rum + sugartop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,908 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together53,532 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Brandy + sugartop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together11,939 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Rum + lemontop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked 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

Isinglass: Gelatin-like protein that sets the liquid into a firm jelly as it cools.
Brandy: Adds alcoholic strength and aroma, and slightly softens the set of the jelly.
Rum: Adds alcoholic strength and aroma, and slightly softens the set of the jelly.
Lemon juice: Adds acidity that balances the sweetness and brightens the flavour.
Pounded loaf sugar: Adds sweetness and body to the jelly.