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Drink

Punch Ice

A chilled frozen punch made with lemon, orange, water, clarified sugar, rum, brandy, and nectar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and orange match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,634 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Punch Ice

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the juice

  1. Zest and juice the 2 lemons.

  2. Juice the 6 lemons and 2 oranges.

Mix and freeze

  1. In a bowl, mix the lemon and orange juice with the water and clarified sugar.

  2. Add the rum, brandy, and nectar to the mixture.

  3. Freeze the mixture until solid.

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. Lemon + orangetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,634 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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

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

  3. Orange + rumtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together801 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Orange + brandytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,706 recipes

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

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Clarified sugar
Adds sweetness and softens the icy texture by lowering the freezing point.
Lemons
Provide acidity and bright flavour that balances the sugar.
Oranges
Add sweetness and juice body to the punch.
Rum
Alcohol keeps the frozen mixture from freezing rock-hard, keeping it scoopable.
Brandy
Adds alcohol that softens the freeze and contributes aroma.

The step that matters

Freeze the mixture until solid. Alcohol and sugar lower the freezing point, so the mixture freezes slowly and unevenly. Freezing fully and then stirring or breaking up the ice crystals gives a smoother, more even texture.

Swap the lemon

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against orange, sugar, 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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