Why it works: Cider and apple are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,238 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-one, which smells mushroom, metallic. The science ↓
Champagne
Ingredients
Directions
Mix all ingredients together.
Let the mixture stand for a short time.
Bottle while it is still fermenting.
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.
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Cider + appletop 2% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,238 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
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Brandy + champagnetop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together169 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
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Cider + brandytop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together404 recipes
Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).
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Cider + champagnetop 8% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together13 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl pentanoate (yeast, fruit).
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Champagne + winetop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together172 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Bitartrate of potassa
- Cream of tartar that stabilises the wine and helps keep it from clouding or over-fermenting.
- Good cider
- Provides the fermentable base and the main body of the drink.
- Best fourth proof brandy
- Adds alcohol and a warming, fortified character to the blend.
- Genuine champagne wine
- Supplies the sparkling wine character and most of the flavour.
The step that matters
Bottle while it is still fermenting. Bottling before fermentation finishes traps carbon dioxide, which makes the bubbles. Bottles built for this must be strong enough to hold the pressure, because too much gas can burst them.
“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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