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Mint Julep

A chilled mint cocktail made with brandy, sugar, water, shaved ice, and garnished with berries and fruit slices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Mint and orange work together. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 549 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Mint Julep

Ingredients

Directions

Make the julep

  1. In an ordinary tumbler, bruise the tops of the mint sprigs with sugar and water using a teaspoon. Pour in the brandy.

  2. Remove the mint, fill the glass with shaved ice, and return the mint with the leaves facing down.

Garnish and serve

  1. Garnish with fresh berries and slices of orange or pineapple, and serve immediately with straws.

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 + orangetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together549 recipes

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

  2. Brandy + orangetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,706 recipes

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

  3. Sugar + brandytop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together11,939 recipes

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

  4. Sugar + orangetop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together19,212 recipes

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

  5. Mint + brandytop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together140 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

Sugar and brandy barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 11,939 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

Fresh mint
Its aromatic oils are released by bruising, scenting the drink.
Sugar
Sweetens the drink and helps draw flavor out of the bruised mint.
Brandy
Forms the base spirit, giving the drink its main body and flavor.
Shaved ice
Chills and gently dilutes the brandy as it melts.

The step that matters

Bruise the mint gently. Pressing the tops of the leaves releases aromatic oils without tearing them. Over-bruising or grinding the leaves can turn them bitter and grassy, spoiling the drink's fragrance.

Swap the mint

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Gingerfits better
  3. Clovefits better
  4. Mintthe original

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