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Rhine Wine Cup

A chilled cocktail made with Rhine wine, curacao, gin, ice, soda, cucumber rind, and mint.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Cucumber and mint 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 ↓

Rhine Wine Cup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the cup

  1. In a large-mouthed pitcher, mix the Rhine wine, curacao, and gin.

  2. Add the large piece of ice.

  3. For flavor, add a small piece of cucumber rind for a few minutes, but do not let it overpower the drink.

Serve

  1. Just before serving, add two short squirts of plain soda.

  2. Serve in Apollinaris glasses with a few sprigs of mint.

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. Cucumber + minttop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together884 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Gin + cucumbertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together23 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  3. Wine + minttop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together442 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Wine + cucumbertop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together485 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Gin + minttop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together46 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

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

What each ingredient does

Rhine wine
Forms the base of the drink, providing most of its volume and light wine flavor.
Curacao
Adds orange sweetness and aroma that balances the wine and gin.
Gin
Adds a dry, botanical aroma and a firmer alcoholic backbone.
Cucumber rind
Contributes a fresh, green aroma to the cup while steeping briefly.

The step that matters

Steeping the cucumber rind. Cucumber rind releases its aroma and bitterness over time, so leaving it too long can make the cup taste harsh and overpower the wine and gin. Removing it after a few minutes keeps the flavor delicate.

Swap the mint

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (wine, gin, cucumber):

  1. Peppermintfits about as well
  2. Rosemaryfits about as well
  3. Mintthe original
  4. Dillfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against wine, gin, cucumber. 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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