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Drink

Wassail Bowl

A hot spiced drink made with wine, spices, eggs, and apples.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Wassail Bowl

Ingredients

Directions

Make the spiced wine

  1. Grate the nutmeg and place it in a saucepan with the clove, ginger, mace, cinnamon, coriander, and cardamom seeds.

  2. Add the cold water and bring to a boil.

  3. Stir in the white wine and sugar, then pour the mixture into a large saucepan and heat it.

Make the egg base

  1. In a bowl, break the yolks of the eggs and the whites separately.

  2. When the wine is warm, mix a cup of it with the egg yolks.

  3. Gradually add more wine until five cups have been mixed.

  4. Boil the remaining wine.

  5. Pour the boiled wine over the egg mixture, stirring briskly to froth it.

Prepare and serve

  1. Core the apples without peeling them.

  2. Fill the cavities with sugar.

  3. Roast the apples.

  4. Add the roasted apples to the bowl.

  5. Serve the wassail very hot.

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. Nutmeg + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Cinnamon + cardamomtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,299 recipes

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

  4. Coriander + cardamomtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together872 recipes

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

  5. Nutmeg + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Yolks thicken and enrich the wine, while frothed whites add a light, airy texture.
Sugar
Sweetens the wine and balances the acidity of the white wine.
Dry white wine
Forms the liquid base that carries the spices and sweetness.
Apples
Roasted apples soften and add tender fruit flavor and body to the drink.

The step that matters

Pour the boiled wine over the egg mixture, stirring briskly. Adding hot wine too quickly or without stirring can scramble the egg yolks. Brisk stirring spreads the heat evenly so the mixture stays smooth and frothy.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (nutmeg, clove, ginger, cinnamon, coriander, cardamom, white wine):

  1. Allspicefits better
  2. Cuminfits better
  3. Turmericfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against nutmeg, clove, ginger, cinnamon, coriander, cardamom, white wine. 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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