Name: Punch & LA Bourgevise
Ingredients: 3 lemons; 1 pint of brandy; ¾ pound of sugar; green tea

Why it works: Lemon and green tea work together. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 104 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Punch & LA Bourgevise

Ingredients

3 lemons
1 pint of brandy
¾ pound of sugar
green tea

Directions

Prepare the lemons

Peel the lemons thinly and remove the inner white skin.
Cut the juicy part into thin slices and remove the seeds.
Boil the lemon slices and peels in water a few times.

Infuse and finish

Add a large pinch of green tea and let it infuse for 5 minutes.
Strain the mixture through a napkin.
Add the brandy and sugar, then heat until nearly boiling.
Pour into a bowl and serve.

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 + green teatop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together104 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Brandy + green teatop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together50 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl benzoate (sweet).
Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together53,532 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Brandy + sugartop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together11,939 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Lemon + brandytop 23% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together5,351 recipes

Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

Lemon and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Lemons: Provide the main citrus aroma and sour acidity that balance the sweetness.
Brandy: Adds alcohol warmth and aroma, and carries the flavours of the infused lemon.
Sugar: Sweetens the punch and softens the sharpness of the lemon acidity.