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Mulled Cider and Wine

A warm drink made by boiling cider or wine with spices, eggs, and sweetener.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Allspice and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,331 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Mulled Cider and Wine

Ingredients

Directions

Make the mulled base

  1. Combine ½ cup cider or wine and ½ cup water in a pot.

  2. Bring the mixture to a boil with ¼ teaspoon allspice.

Add the eggs and serve

  1. Beat 3 eggs in a bowl.

  2. Mix the beaten eggs with 2 cups cider or wine.

  3. Once the mixture boils, stir in the egg mixture.

  4. Sweeten to taste.

  5. Add grated nutmeg before serving.

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. Allspice + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,331 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Cider + allspicetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together873 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).

  3. Egg + nutmegtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together24,744 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  4. Cider + nutmegtop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together884 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  5. Allspice + eggtop 31% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,532 recipes

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

Egg and nutmeg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 24,744 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Thicken the liquid gently when stirred into the hot mixture, giving a light body.
Cider or wine
Provides the main liquid and fruity flavour of the drink.
Allspice
Adds warm, aromatic spice flavour to the hot liquid.

The step that matters

Stir the egg mixture in after the liquid boils. Eggs cooked in a hot liquid can scramble or curdle if added too quickly or over too much heat. Adding the egg mixture once the liquid has boiled, while stirring, helps it blend in smoothly as it warms.

Swap the allspice

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Allspicethe original
  3. Clovefits less well
  4. Cardamomfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against cider, egg, nutmeg. 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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