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Drink

Caudle

A warm drink made from oatmeal, spices, raisins, and fortified wine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg 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 ↓

Caudle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the oatmeal base

  1. Gradually stir 8 quarts of water into 1 pound of oatmeal.

  2. Add 1 ounce of stick cinnamon, 3 grated nutmegs, the rind of 4 lemons, and 1.5 pounds of sugar.

  3. Boil for 4 hours.

Prepare the raisins

  1. In another saucepan, boil 1 pound of stoned raisins in 2 quarts of water for 2 hours.

Combine and serve

  1. Combine the raisins with the oatmeal mixture, adding the juice of the 4 lemons, 1.5 pints of Madeira or Sherry, and 0.5 pint of brandy.

  2. Boil for a few minutes until ready to serve.

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. Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Cinnamon + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

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

  3. Nutmeg + lemontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

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

  4. Sherry + brandytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,209 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  5. Nutmeg + raisintop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).

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

What each ingredient does

Oatmeal
Thickens the liquid as it cooks, giving the caudle a body and a porridge-like texture.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the sharpness of the lemon and the spirits.
Stoned raisins
Add sweetness, fruity flavour and some body from their soaked and simmered flesh.
Madeira or sherry
Adds fortified wine flavour and aroma, with a mild acidity and sweetness.
Brandy
Adds warmth and aroma and helps preserve the drink.

The step that matters

Boil the oatmeal mixture for 4 hours. Oatmeal starches need a long, steady simmer to fully swell and break down, which thickens the liquid and softens the grain. Stirring in the water gradually helps prevent lumps from forming.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cinnamon, nutmeg, sugar, raisin, sherry, brandy):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Applefits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cinnamon, nutmeg, sugar, raisin, sherry, brandy. 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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