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Drink

Milk Punch

A chilled beverage made with milk, lemon rind, sugar, egg yolks, rum, and brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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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 ↓

Milk Punch

Ingredients

Directions

Make the punch base

  1. In a saucepan, combine the new milk and the thinly pared lemon rind.

  2. Add the lump sugar and heat slowly until it boils.

  3. Remove the lemon peel.

  4. In a bowl, mix the egg yolks with a little cold milk. Gradually stir the egg mixture into the milk mixture.

Finish and serve

  1. Add the rum and brandy, stirring well.

  2. Froth the punch and serve immediately in warm glasses.

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

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

  2. Milk + rumtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together967 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  3. Sugar + rumtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,908 recipes

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

  4. Milk + lemontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,053 recipes

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

  5. Milk + brandytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,738 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

New milk
Forms the creamy body of the punch.
Egg yolks
Add richness and help thicken the punch as it is gently heated.
Lump sugar
Adds sweetness to balance the alcohol.
Rum
Adds spirit flavour and aroma to the punch.
Brandy
Adds spirit flavour and warmth to the punch.

The step that matters

Gradually stir the egg mixture into the milk mixture. Egg yolks scramble if they meet hot liquid too quickly. Adding the egg mixture slowly, while stirring, tempers it so the punch stays smooth and thickens gently instead of curdling.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, sugar, egg, rum, brandy):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, sugar, egg, rum, brandy. 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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