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Pineapple Punch

A tropical punch made with pineapple, rice, citrus, sugar, and fortified spirits.

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. Pare the pineapple, remove any specks, and slice it thinly.

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

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

  4. Strain and set aside.

Make the punch base

  1. Rub sugar on the lemon rinds.

  2. Add enough sugar to make 1½ pounds.

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

  4. Pour in 3 pints of boiling water.

Mix and finish

  1. Using two jugs, pour the mixture back and forth from a height for 20 minutes.

  2. Gradually add the brandy, Madeira, and rum while continuing to pour the liquid between the jugs.

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 juice that forms the body of the punch.
Carolina rice
Boiled and strained to add body and a soft, smooth texture to the punch.
Sugar
Sweetens the punch and balances the acidity of the lemon juice.
Lemons
Add acidity and bright citrus aroma, with rinds rubbed into the sugar for oils.
Rum
Adds alcohol, warmth and depth of flavour to the finished punch.
French brandy
Adds alcohol and a rich, aromatic fruit note to the punch.

The step that matters

Pouring the mixture between jugs. Pouring from a height for the full 20 minutes mixes the ingredients and aerates the liquid, helping the sugar dissolve and the flavours blend evenly. Adding the spirits gradually keeps the mixture evenly combined rather than separating or going cloudy.

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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