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Drink

Punch a LA Romaine, or Roman Punch

A punch made with syrup, egg whites, rum, brandy, Maraschino, Noyau, and lemon ice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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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 a LA Romaine, or Roman Punch

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syrup

  1. Boil the syrup until it reaches the second degree.

Make the punch

  1. Whisk the egg whites until frothy.

  2. Add the hot syrup to the egg whites.

  3. Mix in the rum, brandy, Maraschino, and Noyau.

  4. Combine this mixture with the lemon ice and whisk until thick.

  5. Serve in glasses for balls or gatherings.

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

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

  2. Syrup + rumtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together367 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Egg + brandytop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,340 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetoin (butter, cream).

  4. Egg + lemontop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

  5. Rum + lemontop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

Egg and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 44,316 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

Egg whites
Whipped into foam, they give the punch a light, airy body and help it thicken.
Syrup
Sweetens the punch and, once hot, cooks the egg whites slightly as it is added.
Lemon ice
Adds chilled, tart flavour and body that the punch thickens around.
Rum
Contributes spirit strength and warm aroma to the punch.
Brandy
Adds spirit strength and a rounded, fruity depth of flavour.

The step that matters

Adding the hot syrup to the egg whites. Pouring hot syrup into frothed whites while whisking gradually cooks the egg proteins and stabilises the foam. Pouring it in too fast or without whisking can scramble the whites or deflate the foam.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (syrup, egg, rum, brandy):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Pineapplefits better
  3. Apricotfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against syrup, egg, rum, brandy. 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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