Name: Claret Cup
Ingredients: 1 quart of Claret; ½ lemon, squeezed; ⅓ cup of Sherry or Vanderhum; 1 tablespoon of sugar; 1 wineglass of brandy; a little nutmeg; a sprig of borage or a slice of cucumber; a few lumps of ice; 1 bottle of soda water

Why it works: Lemon and borage match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 102 recipes. Both carry acetic acid, which smells sour, vinegar. The science ↓

Claret Cup

Ingredients

Directions

Combine claret, lemon juice, sherry, sugar, brandy, nutmeg, borage or cucumber, and ice in a jug.
When ready to serve, add soda water.

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 + boragetop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together102 recipes

Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
Nutmeg + boragetop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together76 recipes

Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together11,318 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Sherry + brandytop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,209 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together50 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).

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

What each ingredient does

Claret: Provides the main wine base, supplying most of the drink's body and flavour.
Sherry: Adds dry, nutty depth and extra alcohol to the wine base.
Brandy: Adds warmth and aroma, boosting the spirit character of the wine base.
Lemon: Adds acidity that balances the sweetness of the sugar and the wine.
Sugar: Sweetens the drink and softens the acidity of the lemon and wine.
Soda water: Adds carbonation, lightening the drink and giving it a lively fizz.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sherry, sugar, brandy, nutmeg, borage):

Vanillafits about as well
Lemonthe original
Orangefits less well
Pineapplefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against sherry, sugar, brandy, nutmeg, borage. 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.