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Ginger Ale Punch

A citrusy mint beverage made with lemon juice, sugar, mint, ginger ale, and ice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and mint are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,998 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Ginger Ale Punch

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syrup

  1. Juice the lemons and combine the juice with sugar and mint leaves in a bowl.

  2. Let the mixture stand for 2 to 3 hours.

  3. Strain out the mint leaves.

Assemble and serve

  1. Add ice and pour in the ginger ale.

  2. Garnish with sprigs of mint 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.

  1. Lemon + minttop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,998 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Lemon + gingertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,154 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Mint + gingertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together647 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Sugar + gingertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together14,054 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

  5. Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

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

Sugar and ginger barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 14,054 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Lemons
Provide acidity that balances the sugar and brightens the punch.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and dissolves into the lemon juice to form a syrup.
Mint leaves
Infuse aroma and fresh flavor into the lemon syrup while it stands.
Ginger ale
Supplies carbonation and ginger flavor as the main liquid base.

The step that matters

Let the mixture stand for 2 to 3 hours. Standing lets sugar dissolve into the lemon juice and draws mint oils into the liquid, building the flavor base. Skipping this time leaves a weaker, grittier syrup.

Swap the mint

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lemon, sugar, ginger):

  1. Cardamomfits better
  2. Cinnamonfits better
  3. Turmericfits better
  4. Mintthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lemon, sugar, ginger. 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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