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To Mull Wine

A warm spiced wine beverage made by boiling wine with water, sugar, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Wine and clove are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,958 recipes. Both carry cis-isoeugenol, which smells clove, spicy. The science ↓

To Mull Wine

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Boil the spices in the water until the flavor is extracted.

  2. Add the wine and sugar, and bring the mixture to a boil.

  3. Serve with strips of crisp dry toast or biscuits.

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. Wine + clovetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,958 recipes

    Shared aroma: cis-isoeugenol (clove, spicy).

  2. Sugar + clovetop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together17,182 recipes

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

  3. Wine + sugartop 31% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together9,581 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

Sugar and clove barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 17,182 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

Wine
Forms the main liquid base and supplies the body and fruity character of the drink.
Spices
Provide the warm aroma and flavor that define the mulled character of the drink.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the acidity and tannins of the wine.

The step that matters

Bringing the wine to a boil. Once the wine reaches a boil, the alcohol evaporates quickly and delicate aromas are lost, so the flavor can turn flat or harsh. Heating it gently until hot and just simmering keeps more of its character.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Gingerfits better
  3. Rosemaryfits about as well
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against wine, sugar. 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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