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Drink

Ale, to Mull

A drink made by boiling ale with clove, ginger, butter, and sugar, then mixing with eggs and cold ale.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and ginger match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,038 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Ale, to Mull

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Combine ale, clove, ginger, butter, and sugar in a saucepan. Bring to a boil.

  2. Beat eggs with cold ale in a bowl.

  3. Pour the boiling ale mixture into the egg mixture, then transfer to a large jug.

  4. Pour the mixture back and forth between two jugs for a few minutes, at a good height.

  5. Return the mixture to the saucepan and heat again, but do not boil. Cook for 15 minutes.

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.

  1. Clove + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Ginger + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together14,054 recipes

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

  4. Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Ginger and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 14,054 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

Eggs
Thicken the drink into a smooth, frothy custard-like body as they gently set with heat.
Ale
Forms the liquid base and carries the spice and sugar flavours.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the bitterness of the ale.
Butter
Adds richness and a silky mouthfeel to the drink.

The step that matters

Return the mixture to the saucepan and heat again, but do not boil.. Egg proteins set and curdle when overheated, so gentle heating keeps the mull smooth and thickened rather than grainy.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ginger, butter, sugar, egg):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Cardamomfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ginger, butter, sugar, egg. 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.

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