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Milk Punch

A spiced milk punch made with milk, spices, citrus peels, brandy, rum, orange and lemon juice, and eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Milk Punch

Ingredients

Directions

Combine and heat

  1. In a large pot, combine the milk, cinnamon, cloves, mace, lemon peel, orange peel, brandy, rum, orange juice, and lemon juice.

  2. Sweeten to taste and whisk in the yolks and whites of the eggs.

  3. Heat the mixture over a brisk fire until boiling, then let it simmer for 10 minutes.

Strain and bottle

  1. Strain the mixture through a jelly bag until clear.

  2. Bottle the clear liquid and cork it tightly.

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. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

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

  3. Cinnamon + orangetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,437 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. Clove + orangetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,987 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

What each ingredient does

Milk
Forms the body of the punch and curdles with the acid and eggs to be clarified.
Eggs
Their proteins set when heated and gather solids that the jelly bag then removes, clearing the liquid.
Lemon juice
Its acidity curdles the milk, which helps separate solids for clearing.
Orange juice
Adds acidity that helps curdle the milk, along with citrus flavor.
Brandy
Adds alcohol and spirited flavor to the punch.
Rum
Adds alcohol and a rich spirited flavor to the punch.

The step that matters

Heating until boiling. Bringing the milk, eggs and acid to a boil and simmering causes the proteins to curdle and bind impurities. Straining only clears the punch if this curdling has fully happened, so the liquid should be heated and simmered as directed.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, cinnamon, clove, lemon, orange, brandy, rum):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Allspicefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, cinnamon, clove, lemon, orange, 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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