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Drink

Cool Cup, a

A chilled drink made with cider, lemon, sugar, nutmeg, sherry, and garnished with herbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 ↓

Cool Cup, a

Ingredients

Directions

Make the cup

  1. Rub the sugar on the lemon rind.

  2. Pour the cider and lemon juice over the sugar.

  3. Add the grated nutmeg and sherry.

  4. Stir until the sugar dissolves.

Serve

  1. Chill on ice for a while before serving.

  2. Garnish with a sprig of borage, thyme, or mint.

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. Nutmeg + boragetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together76 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  3. Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Cider + sherrytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together143 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl pentanoate (yeast, fruit).

  5. 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

Loaf sugar
Provides sweetness and dissolves into the cider to balance the lemon.
Lemon
Adds acidity and aroma from its juice and rind oils.
Cider
Forms the liquid base and adds its own apple flavour and body.
Sherry
Adds depth, warmth and a fortified wine flavour to the drink.
Nutmeg
Contributes a warm, aromatic spice note.

The step that matters

Rub the sugar on the lemon rind. Rubbing sugar over the rind lifts the aromatic oils from the peel into the sugar, so they dissolve into the drink and flavour it. Stirring until the sugar fully dissolves ensures an even sweetness rather than gritty pockets at the bottom.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Lemonthe original
  2. Vanillafits about as well
  3. Pineapplefits about as well
  4. Orangefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, cider, nutmeg, sherry, 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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