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Drink

Roman Punch

A chilled punch made with water, sugar, lemon, orange, egg whites, and rum or wine.

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

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 ↓

Roman Punch

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the base

  1. Dissolve the sugar in the hot water.

  2. Grate the yellow part of the lemon rind into a bowl.

  3. Squeeze in the lemon juice and orange juice.

  4. Pour the hot syrup into the bowl.

  5. Let it stand for a while.

Freeze

  1. Strain into a freezer.

  2. Freeze the mixture.

Finish and serve

  1. When nearly finished, whip the egg whites and stir them in, beating well.

  2. Add the rum or wine just before serving.

  3. Serve in 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.

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. Lemon + orangetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,634 recipes

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

  2. Orange + rumtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together801 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

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

  5. Lemon + eggtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

Sugar and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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

Sugar
Sweetens the punch and keeps the frozen mixture from becoming rock-hard.
Egg whites
Whipped into foam, they add lightness and an airy texture to the frozen mixture.
Lemon
Its juice and rind add acidity and bright citrus aroma.
Orange juice
Adds fruity sweetness and acidity to balance the sugar.

The step that matters

Whip the egg whites in when the mixture is nearly frozen. Whites folded into a mixture that is still liquid will drain and separate, while whites added after it is fully solid will not blend evenly. Beating them well traps air, which gives the punch its light, fluffy texture.

Swap the orange

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Orangethe original
  3. Pineapplefits about as well
  4. Limefits less well

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