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Drink

Rum Punch

A spiced, fruit‑infused alcoholic beverage made with brandy, rum, tea, citrus, spices, pineapple, sugar, water, and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Rum Punch

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. In a large stone pitcher, combine brandy, rum, old rack, green tea, lemon juice, lemon rind, nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves, coriander seeds, pineapple, and sugar.

  2. Pour in boiling water and stir well.

Steep and clarify

  1. Cover the pitcher with a bladder and let it steep for 2 days in a cool, dark place.

  2. After steeping, boil the sweet milk and add it to the mixture, mixing thoroughly.

  3. Filter the punch through a clean jelly bag into bottles.

Store and serve

  1. Cork the bottles tightly and store them in a cool cellar.

  2. Serve well iced when ready to use.

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. Nutmeg + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Nutmeg + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  5. Brandy + rumtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,058 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Brandy
Provides the spirit base and warming strength that carries the other flavours.
Rum
Adds its own sweet, molasses-like depth alongside the brandy base.
Lemon juice
Brings acidity that balances the sugar and the spirits.
Lump sugar
Sweetens the punch and softens the sharpness of the lemon and alcohol.
Sweet milk
Softens the harsh edge of the spirits and mellows the punch when clarified.
Pineapple
Contributes fruity sweetness and aroma as it steeps in the liquor.

The step that matters

Boiling the sweet milk before adding it. Boiling the milk before it goes in helps it curdle and coagulate so the solids can be removed when the punch is filtered, leaving a clearer drink.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (brandy, rum, sherry, green tea, nutmeg, cinnamon, clove):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Applefits better
  3. Orangefits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against brandy, rum, sherry, green tea, nutmeg, cinnamon, clove. 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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