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Ginger Ale Punch

A citrus-based punch sweetened with syrup and topped with ginger ale.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Orange and lemon 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 ↓

Ginger Ale Punch

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syrup

  1. Make a syrup by combining the sugar and water in a saucepan over medium heat until dissolved.

Combine and steep

  1. Pour the syrup over the fruit juices and let it stand for 2 hours.

  2. If desired, add a few mint leaves.

Serve

  1. When ready to serve, mix in the ginger ale or Apollinaris water.

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.

  1. Orange + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,634 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  2. Lemon + minttop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,998 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Orange + gingertop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,833 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  4. Lemon + gingertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,154 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  5. Ginger + minttop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together647 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

What each ingredient does

Sugar
Sweetens the punch and, dissolved into syrup, blends evenly with the juices.
Orange juice
Provides sweet-tart citrus flavour and most of the punch's liquid base.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and balances the sweetness of the syrup.
Ginger ale
Adds carbonation and ginger flavour, giving the punch its lightness and fizz.

The step that matters

Add the ginger ale at the last moment. Carbonation escapes quickly from liquids, especially when stirred or left standing. Adding the ginger ale just before serving keeps the punch fizzy and lively.

Swap the mint

The recipe marks mint as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (orange, lemon, sugar, ginger):

  1. Cardamomfits better
  2. Cinnamonfits better
  3. Allspicefits better
  4. Mintthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against orange, lemon, sugar, ginger. 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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