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Drink

Fruit Punch

Fruit Punch is a mixed fruit and alcohol beverage with cherries, pears, pineapple, apricots, strawberries, bananas, and citrus, sweetened with sugar syrup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Pear and apricot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 218 recipes. Both carry ethyl isobutyrate, which smells fruity, ethereal. The science ↓

Fruit Punch

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fruit

  1. In a Mason jar, combine cherries, pears, pineapple, and apricots.

  2. Cover the fruits with brandy, rum, Angelica, and sherry.

  3. Let it stand overnight.

Make the syrup

  1. In a pot, mix sugar with boiling water.

  2. Let it cook slowly on the back of the stove until it thickens.

  3. Strain the mixture through cheesecloth when cold.

  4. Pour the syrup over the fruit mixture.

Combine and finish

  1. Add squeezed lemons, orange pieces, strawberries, and banana slices.

  2. Mix thoroughly.

  3. Add cold water to taste.

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. Pear + apricottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together218 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  2. Pineapple + rumtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  3. Pear + pineappletop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together169 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  4. Pineapple + apricottop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together377 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  5. Rum + sherrytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together146 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Sugar
Cooked with water to form a syrup that sweetens the punch and thickens as it simmers.
Cherries
Provide fruit flavor and body, softened and flavored by soaking in the spirits.
Brandy
Adds alcohol and aroma, and draws flavor from the fruit during overnight soaking.
Lemons
Add acidity that brightens the sweetness of the syrup and fruit.
Pears
Contribute mild sweetness and soft fruit texture to the punch.
Strawberries
Add fresh fruit flavor and color to the finished punch.

The step that matters

Cooking the syrup slowly. Sugar dissolved in boiling water must simmer gently; overheating can scorch or darken it, while cooking too briefly leaves it thin rather than syrupy as it thickens.

Swap the angelica

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pear, pineapple, apricot, brandy, rum, sherry, sugar):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Gingerfits better
  3. Clovefits better
  4. Angelicathe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pear, pineapple, apricot, brandy, rum, sherry, sugar. 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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