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Oxford Punch

A historical punch made with citrus rinds, juices, jelly, water, and spirits.

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 base

  1. Rub the rinds of 3 lemons with sugar and place them in a large jug.

  2. Add the thin peel of 2 Seville oranges and 2 lemons.

  3. Add the juice of 4 Seville oranges, 10 lemons, and 6 glasses of calf’s feet jelly.

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

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

  6. Strain the mixture into a punch bowl or jug.

Add the spirits and sweeten

  1. Sweeten with a bottle of capillaire.

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

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

  5. Lemon + white winetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,832 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

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

What each ingredient does

Lemons
Rubbed with sugar and steeped in the jug, their rinds and juice give the punch its sharp acidity and aroma.
Seville oranges
Thin peel and juice add bitter aroma and acidity to the punch.
Calf’s feet jelly
Adds body and a silky texture to the punch.
French brandy
Adds alcoholic strength and warming aroma to the punch.
Jamaica rum
Adds depth of flavour and aroma along with the alcohol.
Capillaire
A sugar syrup that sweetens the punch and balances its acidity.

The step that matters

Sweetening to taste. Acid from the citrus and alcohol from the spirits both reduce how sweet the punch tastes, so sweetness is best adjusted at the end, after the spirits are in, and tasted before serving.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, orange, 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, 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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