Skip to main content
Drink

Roman Punch

A chilled punch made with powdered sugar, raspberry syrup, Curacao, Jamaica rum, brandy, lemon juice, shaved ice, garnished with Port wine and seasonal fruits.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓
Roman Punch

Why it works: Rum and brandy are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,058 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Roman Punch

Ingredients

Directions

Make the punch

  1. Dissolve the sugar in a little water.

  2. Add raspberry syrup, Curacao, Jamaica rum, brandy, and lemon juice.

  3. Fill a large bar glass with shaved ice. Shake well.

Finish and serve

  1. Dash with Port wine.

  2. Garnish with seasonal fruits.

  3. 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.

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. Rum + brandytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,058 recipes

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

  2. Rum + port winetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together22 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  3. Sugar + syruptop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,842 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Brandy + port winetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together127 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  5. Raspberry + lemontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,109 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

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

What each ingredient does

Powdered white sugar
Dissolves to add sweetness that balances the lemon and spirits.
Jamaica rum
Provides the main spirit flavour and body of the drink.
Brandy
Adds warmth and depth alongside the rum.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the sweet and alcoholic elements.
Raspberry syrup
Contributes fruity sweetness and colour.

The step that matters

Shake well. Shaking with shaved ice chills the drink and dilutes it slightly through melting, while mixing the sugar evenly into the spirits. Under-shaking leaves the drink warm, harsh, and unevenly sweetened.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, raspberry, syrup, rum, brandy, port wine):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Pineapplefits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, raspberry, syrup, rum, brandy, port wine. 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.

You might also like

Lemon WineLemon Wine31 recipesRaspberry VinegarRaspberry Vinegar214 recipesWine WheyWine Whey111 recipesRaisin WineRaisin Wine64 recipes