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Drink

Claret Cup

A chilled claret-based cocktail with sherry, maraschino, lemon rind, sugar, herbs, soda, and optional fruit.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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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

Prepare the base

  1. Pour the claret into a large jug.

  2. Add the sherry, brandy, or preferred liquor and maraschino.

  3. Add the thin rind of lemon and powdered sugar.

  4. Let it stand for 30 minutes until the sugar dissolves.

  5. Add the borage, balm, verbena, or sliced cucumber.

Serve

  1. Just before serving, add the soda or seltzer water and a large piece of ice.

  2. Optionally, add sliced nectarines, peaches, or raspberries instead of lemon rind.

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. Lemon + boragetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together102 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  2. Lemon + peachtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together947 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  3. Sherry + peachtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together48 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  4. Sherry + boragetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50 recipes

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

  5. Sherry + lemontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,273 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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

What each ingredient does

Claret
Forms the wine base that carries the drink's flavour and colour.
Powdered sugar
Dissolves into the wine to add sweetness and balance the acidity.
Maraschino
Adds a sweet, almond-like cherry aroma to the wine base.
Lemon rind
Contributes aromatic citrus oils that brighten the drink.

The step that matters

Let it stand for 30 minutes until the sugar dissolves. Powdered sugar dissolves slowly in wine without stirring time, so it needs to rest before the sweetness and flavours blend evenly.

Swap the peach

The recipe marks peach as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sherry, lemon, sugar, borage):

  1. Orangefits better
  2. Limefits better
  3. Vanillafits better
  4. Peachthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sherry, lemon, sugar, 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.

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