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Pomegranate Punch

A refreshing fruit punch made with pomegranate, orange, pineapple, lemon juices, sugar syrup, sparkling water, and served over cracked ice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Pomegranate Punch

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Juice the pomegranates, oranges, pineapple, and lemons.

  2. Boil the sugar syrup with the cinnamon stick and cloves in a saucepan.

  3. Let the sugar syrup cool.

Make the punch

  1. Combine the fruit juices with the cooled sugar syrup.

  2. Add the Vichy.

  3. Stir gently.

  4. Serve over cracked ice.

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Pomegranate + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together94 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

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

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

  4. Pomegranate + orangetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together116 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  5. Orange + cinnamontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,437 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Pomegranate juice
Provides the main tart, fruity flavor and deep color of the punch.
Sugar syrup
Adds sweetness to balance the acidity of the citrus and pomegranate juices.
Orange juice
Adds sweetness and bright citrus aroma to the fruit base.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the punch and balances the sweetness.
Vichy sparkling water
Adds carbonation and lightness, making the punch fizzy and diluting its strength.

The step that matters

Let the sugar syrup cool before combining. Adding hot syrup to the juices can dull their fresh flavor and begin diluting the punch unevenly. Cooling it first keeps the fruit flavor bright and the mixture consistent before the sparkling water is added.

Swap the pineapple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pomegranate, orange, lemon, sugar, syrup, cinnamon, clove):

  1. Limefits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Pineapplethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pomegranate, orange, lemon, sugar, syrup, 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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