Skip to main content
Drink

Mulled Wine

A warm drink of red wine and water spiced with nutmeg and allspice, thickened with beaten eggs and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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

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

  2. In a bowl, beat the eggs with the sugar until well combined.

  3. Slowly pour the hot wine mixture into the egg mixture, whisking constantly to prevent curdling.

  4. Sweeten the mulled wine to taste, then grate nutmeg and add allspice.

  5. 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. Red wine + allspicetop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together120 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).

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

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

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 warm liquid into a silky, custard-like body when gently heated.
Red wine
Provides the main liquid and the base flavour of the drink.
Sugar
Sweetens the drink and helps stabilise the beaten eggs.
Nutmeg
Adds warm, aromatic spice flavour.
Allspice
Adds warm, aromatic spice flavour.

The step that matters

Adding the hot wine to the eggs. Pouring hot liquid into eggs too quickly or without constant whisking can scramble them. Adding the hot mixture slowly while whisking gently raises the egg temperature so it thickens smoothly instead of curdling.

Swap the allspice

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against red 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.

You might also like

Wine WheyWine Whey111 recipesRaisin WineRaisin Wine64 recipesEgg WineEgg Wine58 recipesElderberry WineElderberry Wine51 recipes