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Hollandaise Punch

A chilled punch made with water, sugar, lemon, pineapple, brandy, and gin.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Pineapple and brandy work together. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 298 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Hollandaise Punch

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syrup

  1. In a pot, combine water, sugar, and a little grated lemon rind. Cook for 15 minutes.

  2. Remove from heat and stir in lemon juice and pineapple.

Chill and freeze

  1. Cool the mixture, then strain it.

  2. Freeze the mixture partially, then add the brandy and gin.

  3. Continue freezing until fully set.

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. Pineapple + brandytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together298 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Lemon + pineappletop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,964 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Sugar + pineappletop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,841 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Sugar + brandytop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together11,939 recipes

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

Sugar and lemon 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

Sugar
Sweetens the punch and, with the water, forms a syrup that keeps the frozen mixture from freezing rock-hard.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the sweetness and balances the flavor.
Brandy
Adds aroma and flavor, and its alcohol keeps the frozen mixture softer.
Gin
Adds aroma and flavor, and its alcohol keeps the frozen mixture softer.

The step that matters

Add the brandy and gin during partial freezing. Alcohol lowers the freezing point, so adding it before the mixture is partly frozen can stop it from setting properly. Partial freezing first lets the spirits blend in while the texture is still slushy.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, pineapple, brandy, gin):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Apricotfits better
  3. Strawberryfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, pineapple, brandy, gin. 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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