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Drink

Cranberry Water

A beverage made by boiling water with cranberries, cornmeal, lemon peel, sugar, and sherry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and sherry are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,273 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓

Cranberry Water

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Mash the cranberries in a cup of water.

  2. Boil 2 quarts of water with cornmeal and lemon peel.

Simmer and serve

  1. Add the mashed cranberries and sugar, adjusting to maintain the fruit's flavor.

  2. Stir in the sherry and boil gently for 15 minutes.

  3. Strain the mixture before serving.

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. Lemon + sherrytop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,273 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  2. Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Lemon and sugar 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

Cranberries
Provide the tart, fruity flavor and color that define the drink.
Cornmeal or oatmeal
Adds a little body, as its starch thickens slightly during boiling.
Fine sugar
Sweetens the drink and balances the cranberries' tartness.
Sherry
Adds aroma and a warm, wine-like flavor.

The step that matters

Adding and adjusting the sugar. Sugar softens the cranberries' sharp acidity, but too much hides the fruit's flavor. Adding it gradually and tasting as you go keeps the cranberry character clear.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Pineapplefits better
  4. Lemonthe original

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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