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Drink

Roman Punch

A chilled milk and sherry beverage with gelatin, sugar, eggs, and cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Roman Punch

Why it works: Cream and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Roman Punch

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cover the gelatine with part of the cold milk and let it stand for at least 1 hour.

Make the mixture

  1. Scald the remaining milk, then stir in the sugar and gelatine until dissolved.

  2. Let the mixture cool, then pour it into a freezer and partly freeze.

Finish and freeze

  1. Beat the egg whites to stiff peaks, then add them and the sherry to the mixture.

  2. Stir well and freeze until fully 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.

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. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  2. Milk + sherrytop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,479 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine (cocoa, roasted).

  3. Milk + creamtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,399 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

  5. Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

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

Milk and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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

Milk
Forms the liquid base and gives the punch its creamy body.
Cream
Adds richness and a smooth, fatty mouthfeel.
Sugar
Sweetens the punch and keeps the frozen texture softer.
Eggs
Whipped whites trap air, making the frozen punch lighter.
Sherry
Adds flavour and alcohol, which keeps the frozen texture softer.
Gelatine
Sets the mixture so it holds a firm, sliceable body when frozen.

The step that matters

Folding in the whipped whites while partly frozen. Stiff peaks trap air for a light texture, and a partly frozen base is thick enough to hold that air rather than let it deflate.

“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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