Name: Champagne
Ingredients: 8 pounds white sugar; 7 pounds brown sugar; ¼ ounce crystalline lemon acid or tartaric acid; 8 gallons pure water; 2 quarts white grape wine or 4 quarts cherry; 3 pints French brandy

Why it works: Grape and brandy work together. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 711 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Champagne

Ingredients

8 pounds white sugar
7 pounds brown sugar
¼ ounce crystalline lemon acid or tartaric acid
8 gallons pure water
2 quarts white grape wine or 4 quarts cherry
3 pints French brandy

Directions

Make the syrup

Boil the sugar in the water for 2 hours, skimming occasionally.
Pour the mixture into a tub and dissolve the acid in it before it cools.

Ferment

Add yeast and allow to ferment.
Transfer the mixture to a clean cask, then add the other ingredients.
Seal the cask tightly and keep it in a cool place.

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.

Grape + brandytop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together711 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Lemon + grapetop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,412 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together53,532 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Sugar + brandytop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together11,939 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Lemon + brandytop 23% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together5,351 recipes

Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

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

White sugar: Provides the sweetness and the fermentable sugar that yeast turns into alcohol.
Brown sugar: Adds fermentable sugar and a deeper, molasses-like sweetness.
Crystalline lemon acid or tartaric acid: Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and helps keep the drink lively.
White grape wine or cherry: Adds fruit flavour and aroma to the finished drink.
French brandy: Adds alcohol, strengthening the drink and contributing aroma.