Name: Port Wine
Ingredients: 42 gallons worked cider; 12 gallons good port wine; 3 gallons good brandy; 6 gallons pure spirits

Why it works: Brandy and spirit work together. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 209 recipes. Both carry ethyl benzoate, which smells sweet. The science ↓

Port Wine

Ingredients

42 gallons worked cider
12 gallons good port wine
3 gallons good brandy
6 gallons pure spirits

Directions

Mix all ingredients together.
Let the mixture stand for a period to allow flavors to meld.
Draw off the liquid carefully for use.

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.

Brandy + spirittop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together209 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl benzoate (sweet).
Cider + port winetop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together41 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl pentanoate (yeast, fruit).
Cider + brandytop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together404 recipes

Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).
Port wine + brandytop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together127 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
Cider + spirittop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together26 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

What each ingredient does

Worked cider: Forms the base volume and provides the main body of the wine.
Port wine: Supplies the characteristic port flavor and sweetness to the blend.
Brandy: Adds alcohol strength and warming aroma that preserves the blend.
Pure spirits: Raises the alcohol content further, adding strength and helping keep the blend stable.

“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.