Name: Fruit Punch
Ingredients: 2 quarts water; 12 lemons; 6 sliced bananas; 1 can peach; 1 can pineapple; 1 pint strawberry preserves; 4 oranges; 1 cup chopped raisins; 1.5 pounds grapes

Why it works: Lemon and orange match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,634 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Fruit Punch

Ingredients

Directions

In a large bowl, combine 2 quarts of water with the juice of 12 lemons.
Add 6 sliced bananas, 1 can of peaches, 1 can of pineapples, and 1 pint of strawberry preserves.
Stir in the juice of 4 oranges and 1 cup of chopped raisins.
Finally, add 1.5 pounds of grapes, and mix well.
Chill before serving.

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.

Lemon + orangetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together10,634 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Pineapple + strawberrytop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together433 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Banana + pineappletop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together733 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).
Banana + strawberrytop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together421 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).
Peach + strawberrytop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together228 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Strawberry preserves: Adds sweetness and a thick, fruity body to the punch.
Lemons: Add acidity that balances the sweetness of the fruit.
Bananas: Add body and a soft, creamy texture to the punch.

Swap the raisin

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lemon, banana, peach, pineapple, strawberry, orange, grape):

Apricotfits better
Mangofits better
Vanillafits better
Raisinthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lemon, banana, peach, pineapple, strawberry, orange, grape. 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.