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Drink

Modern Cookery

A chilled milk punch made with milk, lemon rind, rum, brandy, and eggs, served in warm glasses.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Rum and brandy are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,058 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Modern Cookery

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. In a large bowl, combine the new milk and cold milk.

  2. Add the lemon rind, rum, and brandy, mixing well.

  3. In a separate bowl, beat the eggs until frothy.

  4. Gradually add the beaten eggs to the milk mixture, stirring continuously.

Serve

  1. Serve immediately in warm 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. Rum + brandytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,058 recipes

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

  2. Milk + rumtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together967 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  3. Milk + lemontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,053 recipes

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

  4. Milk + brandytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,738 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

  5. Egg + brandytop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,340 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetoin (butter, cream).

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

What each ingredient does

New milk
Forms the creamy base of the punch and carries the other flavours.
Fresh eggs
Add body and a silky richness that thickens the drink slightly when beaten in.
Rum
Adds the main spirit flavour and aroma to the punch.
Brandy
Adds further warm, fruity alcohol notes that deepen the flavour.
Lemon rind
Contributes aromatic citrus oils that brighten the rich milk and spirits.

The step that matters

Gradually add the beaten eggs to the milk mixture, stirring continuously.. Adding beaten eggs to a cold, alcohol-rich liquid all at once can cause them to clump or curdle. Adding them slowly while stirring spreads the egg proteins evenly so the punch stays smooth.

Swap the lemon

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, egg, 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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