Name: Mixed Punch
Ingredients: 1 gallon mixed spirits (brandy, rum, and Irish whiskey); 1½ tablespoons powdered sugar; peel and juice of ½ fresh lemon; shaved ice; 2-3 slices of tangerine oranges

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 ↓

Mixed Punch

Ingredients

1 gallon mixed spirits (brandy, rum, and Irish whiskey)
1½ tablespoons powdered sugar
peel and juice of ½ fresh lemon
shaved ice
2-3 slices of tangerine oranges

Directions

Make the punch

In a large glass, combine the mixed spirits and powdered sugar.
Add the lemon peel and juice, then fill the glass with shaved ice.
Mix well and garnish with tangerine orange slices.

Serve

Serve with 2 straws.

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.

Lemon + orangetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together10,634 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Brandy + rumtop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,058 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Spirit + brandytop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together209 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl benzoate (sweet).
Tangerine + orangetop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together103 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).
Spirit + rumtop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together47 recipes

Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).

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

What each ingredient does

Mixed spirits: Provide the alcoholic base and most of the punch's body and aroma.
Powdered sugar: Adds sweetness and dissolves quickly into the spirits.
Lemon: Adds acidity and bright citrus aroma from the peel and juice.

Swap the tangerine

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

Vanillafits better
Pineapplefits better
Apricotfits better
Tangerinethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against spirit, brandy, rum, sugar, lemon, orange. 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.