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Drink

Claret Cup

A chilled cocktail made with claret wine, Curaçao, orange juice, brandy, Apollinaris, sugar, mint, cucumber rind, and strawberries.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Mint and cucumber work together. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 884 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Claret Cup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the punch base

  1. In a large pitcher, mix the claret wine, Curaçao, orange juice, brandy, and enough sugar to sweeten to taste.

  2. Add mint leaves, cucumber rind, and strawberries to the mixture.

  3. Chill the mixture on ice.

Serve

  1. Just before serving, add the chilled Apollinaris.

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. Mint + cucumbertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together884 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Orange + minttop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together549 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Wine + brandytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,427 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

  4. Wine + orangetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,046 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Orange + brandytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,706 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

What each ingredient does

Claret wine
Forms the main body of the punch and supplies most of its flavor.
Curaçao
Adds orange-flavored sweetness and aroma to the punch.
Orange juice
Adds acidity and fresh citrus brightness that balances the sweetness.
Apollinaris
Adds carbonation, giving the punch a lively, bubbly texture.
Strawberries
Release fruity flavor and color into the punch as they steep.

The step that matters

Add the Apollinaris just before serving. Carbonation escapes quickly from mineral water, especially when warm or stirred vigorously. Adding it last, while the mixture is chilled, keeps the punch fizzy.

Swap the cucumber

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (wine, orange, brandy, sugar, mint):

  1. Carrotfits about as well
  2. Capsicumfits about as well
  3. Sweet potatofits about as well
  4. Cucumberthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against wine, orange, brandy, sugar, mint. 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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