Name: Claret Cup
Ingredients: 3 lemons; 2 bottles claret; 1 cup sugar; 1 syphon vichy; 3 tablespoons Benedictine; ice; 1 bottle sarsaparilla; 3 oranges; 3 bananas

Why it works: Lemon and orange match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,634 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Claret Cup

Ingredients

Directions

Juice the lemons and add the juice to a large pitcher.
Pour in the claret, sugar, vichy, and Benedictine.
Stir well to combine all ingredients.
Add ice to the pitcher.
Slice the oranges, bananas, and remaining lemon, and add them to the mixture.

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.

Lemon + orangetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together10,634 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Orange + bananatop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,118 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Lemon + bananatop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,134 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together53,532 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Sugar + bananatop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together3,102 recipes

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

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

Claret: Provides the wine base, with body, tannin, and fruity flavor that define the drink.
Sugar: Adds sweetness that balances the wine and the lemon acidity.
Lemons: Add acidity that brightens the wine and keeps the drink from tasting flat or heavy.
Benedictine: Adds sweet herbal aroma and spice notes that deepen the flavor.
Oranges: Add juicy citrus sweetness and aroma as they soak in the mixture.
Bananas: Add soft texture and mild sweetness to the fruit in the cup.