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Pineapple Punch

A punch of pineapple, lemon, rice, spices, sugar, and alcohol.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Pineapple Punch

Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg 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 ↓

Pineapple Punch

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the pineapple and rice

  1. Peel the pineapple, remove any specks, and slice it thinly.

  2. Weigh the pulp and place ½ pound in a bowl.

  3. Boil ½ pound of Carolina rice in 1 quart of cold water with cinnamon and nutmeg until soft.

  4. Strain the rice and set it aside.

Make the punch

  1. Rub sugar on the rind of 8 lemons.

  2. Add enough sugar to make 1½ pounds.

  3. Combine the sugar with the strained lemon juice and pineapple.

  4. Pour in 3 pints of boiling water.

  5. Using two jugs, pour the mixture back and forth from a height to mix well.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Pineapple + rumtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  3. Rice + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,137 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Brandy + rumtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,058 recipes

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

  5. Nutmeg + lemontop 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

Pineapple
Provides the main fruit flavour and a juicy, acidic base for the punch.
Rice
Boiled until soft and strained, it adds body and a smooth, mellow texture to the liquid.
Lemons
Their juice adds sharp acidity, and the rind, rubbed with sugar, adds aromatic oils.
Sugar
Sweetens the punch and balances the acidity of the lemon and pineapple.

The step that matters

Pouring the mixture back and forth from a height. Pouring between jugs aerates and blends the liquid evenly, so the sugar dissolves and the fruit flavours distribute through the whole punch rather than settling in layers.

Swap the lemon

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against pineapple, rice, cinnamon, nutmeg, 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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