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Drink

Mulled Wine

A warm beverage made by heating wine and water, then mixing with beaten eggs and sugar, flavored with nutmeg and allspice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and allspice 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 Wine

Ingredients

Directions

Heat and mix

  1. Heat 1 pint of wine and 1 pint of water in a pot until hot but not boiling.

  2. In a bowl, beat 3 eggs with 3 tablespoons of sugar.

  3. Slowly pour the hot wine into the egg mixture while constantly beating.

Season and serve

  1. Sweeten the mulled wine to taste.

  2. Grate a little nutmeg and add a pinch of allspice.

  3. Serve 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 + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,331 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  3. Sugar + nutmegtop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together23,364 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

  4. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Wine + nutmegtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,356 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

Wine
Provides the main liquid and flavor base of the drink.
Eggs
Add body and a silky, slightly thickened texture to the warm liquid.
Sugar
Adds sweetness to balance the acidity of the wine.

The step that matters

Slowly pour the hot wine into the egg mixture while constantly beating. Adding hot liquid to eggs too quickly can cook them unevenly and cause lumps or scrambled bits. Pouring slowly while beating gradually warms the eggs so they blend smoothly into the drink.

Swap the allspice

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against wine, egg, sugar, 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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