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Mulled Wine Recipe

A cheeky little number and a Spanish citrus favourite - ideal for getting into the festive spirit.

By lovefood · From Open Recipes · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Red wine and wine share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and 60 recipes mention both. Both carry sotolon, which smells curry, maple. The science ↓

The recipe

2 people
Prep5 min
Cook10 min

Ingredients

Directions

Step-by-step directions aren't available for this recipe. See the full recipe at the source →

By lovefood. Recipe from Open Recipes.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Red wine + winetop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together60 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  2. Orange + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together10,632 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  3. Orange + cinnamontop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together3,437 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Cinnamon + sugartop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together30,777 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Lemon + cinnamontop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together7,950 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

Cinnamon and sugar share little aroma chemistry, yet 30,777 recipes mention both: they likely work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

Flavor stand-ins for the lemon

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

  1. Applebetter flavor fit
  2. Pearbetter flavor fit
  3. Grapebetter flavor fit
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against red wine, orange, cinnamon, sugar, wine. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).