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Drink

Loving Cup

A frothy drink made with capillaire sugar, brown sherry, Edinburgh ale, soda water, nutmeg, and toast.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Sherry and nutmeg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,246 recipes. Both carry linalool, which smells floral, citrus. The science ↓

Loving Cup

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Combine the capillaire sugar with the brown sherry and Edinburgh ale in a large cup.

  2. Mix well, then add the soda water just before serving, stirring until frothy.

  3. Grate nutmeg over the froth and place a piece of toast in the cup.

  4. Serve with a napkin through the handle of the cup.

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. Sherry + nutmegtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,246 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  2. Sugar + nutmegtop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together23,364 recipes

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

  3. Sugar + sherrytop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,141 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Sugar and nutmeg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 23,364 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

Capillaire or dissolved lump sugar
Adds sweetness to balance the sherry and ale.
Brown sherry
Provides body and a rich, fortified wine flavour.
Edinburgh ale
Adds malty bitterness and body to the drink.
Soda water
Adds carbonation, producing a light, frothy top.
Toast
Floats in the cup and adds a toasted, bready aroma.

The step that matters

Adding the soda water. Soda water should go in just before serving because carbonation escapes over time, so adding it early leaves the cup flat and loses the frothy texture.

Swap the nutmeg

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Gingerfits about as well
  3. Nutmegthe original
  4. Clovefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, sherry. 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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