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Drink

Oxford Punch

A citrus punch made with lemon and Seville orange rinds, juices, calf’s foot jelly, water, capillaire, wine, brandy, rum, and orange shrub.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Oxford Punch

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 ↓

Oxford Punch

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the essence

  1. Rub the rinds of 3 lemons with sugar in lumps to extract essence.

  2. In a large jug, combine the lemon essence, thin peels of 2 Seville oranges and 2 lemons, juices of 4 Seville oranges and 10 lemons, and 6 glasses of calf’s foot jelly.

  3. Stir well, then pour in 2 quarts of boiling water.

  4. Cover the jug and set it near the fire for 15 minutes.

Strain and finish

  1. Strain the mixture through a sieve into a punch bowl or jug.

  2. Sweeten with 1 bottle of capillaire, then add ½ pint of white wine, 1 pint of French brandy, 1 pint of Jamaica rum, and 1 bottle of orange shrub.

  3. Stir the punch as you pour in the spirits.

  4. If not sweet enough, add sugar or more capillaire to taste.

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

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

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

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

  3. White wine + rumtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together113 recipes

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

  4. Sugar + syruptop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,842 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. White wine + brandytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together620 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

Lemons
Their juice and rind oils supply the sharp acidity and bright aroma that define the punch.
Seville oranges
Their juice and thin peel add bitter-sharp acidity and fragrant citrus oils.
Sugar
Rubbed into the lemon rinds to draw out oils and later sweetens the punch.
Capillaire
A sweet syrup that balances the sharpness of the citrus and adds sweetness.
French brandy
Adds alcoholic strength and warming depth of flavour to the punch.
Jamaica rum
Adds alcoholic strength and rich, molasses-like aroma.

The step that matters

Rubbing the lemon rinds with sugar. Rubbing sugar into the rinds breaks open the oil glands and dissolves some of the oils into the sugar, extracting the lemon's aroma. Skipping or rushing this step leaves the punch tasting flat and less fragrant.

Swap the lemon

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, orange, syrup, white wine, 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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