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Champagne Punch

A sparkling punch made with champagne, spirits, tea, citrus juices, pineapple, and powdered sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Champagne Punch

Why it works: Orange and lemon 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 ↓

Champagne Punch

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Dissolve the powdered sugar in hot water.

Make the punch

  1. In a large punch bowl, combine the champagne, Apollinaris, whiskey, brandy, rum, Benedictine, maraschino, Chartreuse, black tea, orange juice, lemon juice, and pineapple.

  2. Add the dissolved sugar and mix well.

  3. Chill the punch with ice 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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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

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

  2. Rum + pineappletop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  3. Champagne + rumtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together137 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

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

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

  5. Champagne + brandytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together169 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

What each ingredient does

Powdered sugar
Dissolved in hot water to sweeten the punch evenly.
Champagne
Provides the sparkling base and light, fruity aroma.
Whiskey
Adds strong spirit body and warmth to the punch.
Black tea
Adds tannin for a dry, slightly bitter backbone that balances sweetness.
Orange juice
Adds acidity and citrus flavour that brightens the punch.
Lemon juice
Adds sharp acidity that balances the sugar and liqueurs.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, champagne, brandy, rum, black tea, orange, pineapple):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, champagne, brandy, rum, black tea, orange, pineapple. 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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