Name: Orgeat Punch
Ingredients: 1 ¼ tablespoons orgeat syrup; ¼ cup brandy; Juice of ½ lemon

Why it works: Syrup and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 20% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,235 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Orgeat Punch

Ingredients

1 ¼ tablespoons orgeat syrup
¼ cup brandy
Juice of ½ lemon

Directions

In a large bar glass, combine orgeat syrup, brandy, and lemon juice.
Fill the glass with shaved ice.
Shake well and serve with a straw.

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.

Syrup + lemontop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,235 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Syrup + brandytop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together561 recipes
Brandy + lemontop 23% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together5,351 recipes

Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

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

What each ingredient does

Orgeat syrup: Provides the sweetness and the nutty almond flavor of the punch.
Brandy: Supplies the spirit base and the warming aroma of the drink.
Lemon juice: Adds acidity that balances the sweetness of the syrup.