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Drink

Cider

A spiced cider made with water, sugar, ginger, cloves, bitter almonds, whiskey, and optional burnt sugar or peach decoction.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Cider

Why it works: Ginger and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,038 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Cider

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the spice infusion

  1. Boil ginger, cloves, and bitter almonds in 2 gallons of water for 2 hours.

  2. Strain the mixture.

  3. Add the strained mixture to the remaining water.

Finish the cider

  1. Dissolve the clear brown sugar in the mixture.

  2. If desired, add burnt sugar for a deeper color.

  3. For a good body, mix in 3 to 4 gallons of good whiskey.

  4. Optionally, add 2 gallons of strong decoction of boiled dried peaches before bottling.

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. Ginger + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Almond + peachtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Clove + peachtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together280 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  4. Ginger + peachtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together218 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  5. Clove + almondtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,605 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Clear brown sugar
Provides sweetness and fuel for fermentation, shaping the final flavor and body.
Good whiskey
Adds alcohol and warmth, and contributes body and aroma to the finished drink.
Ginger
Contributes a warm, pungent aroma and spiciness that flavors the liquid.
Cloves
Adds a strong, warm aromatic flavor to the infused liquid.
Bitter almonds
Adds a characteristic nutty, bitter aroma to the infused liquid.

Swap the peach

The recipe marks peach as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, ginger, clove, almond):

  1. Vanillafits about as well
  2. Orangefits about as well
  3. Quincefits about as well
  4. Peachthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, ginger, clove, almond. 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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