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Drink

Ice Punch, As Used in Italy

A chilled drink made with water, sugar, lemon juice, egg whites, rum, and ice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and rum are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,908 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Ice Punch, As Used in Italy

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sherbet

  1. Make a rich sherbet by mixing water and fine sugar.

  2. Grate a piece of sugar on a lemon or citron for flavor.

Finish and serve

  1. Beat the egg whites to a froth.

  2. Gradually stir the frothy egg whites into the sherbet.

  3. Add rum and ice, then serve in glasses.

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. Sugar + rumtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,908 recipes

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

  2. Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Lemon + eggtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

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

  4. Lemon + rumtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,341 recipes

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

  5. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Sugar and lemon 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

Egg whites
Beaten to a froth, they add a light, airy foam to the drink.
Lemon or citron juice
Adds acidity that balances the sweetness of the sugar.
Fine sugar
Sweetens the sherbet and balances the sharpness of the citrus.
Rum
Adds alcohol and aroma to the finished punch.

The step that matters

Gradually stir the frothy egg whites into the sherbet. Adding the foam slowly helps it fold in evenly instead of collapsing. Pouring it in all at once can deflate the froth and leave the punch flat and uneven.

Swap the lemon

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg, 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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