Name: The Old Bear's Hot Spiced Wine
Ingredients: 2 bottles of red wine (Shiraz and Cabernet work well); 750ml pulp-free orange juice (1/2 as much orange juice as wine); 1 Tbs. cinnamon and 2 cinnamon sticks; 1 Tbs. nutmeg; ~3 1″ cubes of fresh ginger. Crush these into the wine using a garlic press.; ~3 tablespoons of honey; 3-6 heaping tablespoons of cane sugar (or white sugar); 2 clementines, halved. (or 1 small orange); 1/4 of a fresh lemon, squeezed over the pot. (Optional, but don’t substitute lemon juice from a bottle.); 12-20 cloves.; 1/2 shot of brandy, cognac, or armagnac (optional, but adds a pleasant kick)

Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

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.

Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together11,917 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Cinnamon + gingertop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together6,380 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Orange + cinnamontop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,437 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Orange + gingertop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,833 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Nutmeg + gingertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,324 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

Red wine: Forms the base liquid and carries the flavour of the spices and fruit.
Orange juice: Adds sweetness and acidity that balance the tannins of the wine.
Cloves: Release aromatic oils into the wine, adding warm spice aroma.
Cinnamon: Contributes warm, sweet aroma that deepens as the wine heats.
Honey: Adds sweetness and a rounded body to the wine.
Cane sugar: Adds sweetness to balance the acidity of the juice and wine.

The step that matters

Keep the wine below a simmer. Boiling drives off alcohol and aromatic compounds and can make the wine taste harsh or flat, so gentle heat keeps the flavour fresh and balanced.

Swap the garlic

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

Clovefits better
Cardamomfits better
Rosemaryfits better
Garlicthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against red wine, orange, wine, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, honey. 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.

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Honey	1 tbsp (21g)	64
Orange	1 medium (131g)	62
Sugar	1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated	49
Wine	2 tbsp cooking wine (30ml)	25
Nutmeg	1 tsp ground (2.2g)	12
Lemon	juice of 1 lemon (48ml)	12
Clove	1 tsp ground (2g)	7
Cinnamon	1 tsp ground (2.6g)	6
Garlic	1 clove (3g)	4
Ginger	1 tsp grated fresh (2g)	2
Clementine	not in our table	0
Brandy	not in our table	0
Cognac	not in our table	0

The Old Bear's Hot Spiced Wine