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Mulled Cider

Hot cider spiced with cloves, combined with sweetened beaten eggs and served warm.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Cider and clove are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,683 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Mulled Cider

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Boil the cider with the cloves.

  2. In a separate bowl, beat the eggs and add sugar until very sweet.

Combine and serve

  1. Pour the boiling cider over the beaten eggs and stir well.

  2. Pour the mixture back and forth between two vessels until frothy.

  3. Serve warm in glasses.

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. Cider + clovetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,683 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

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

  3. Clove + sugartop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together17,182 recipes

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

  4. Cider + sugartop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,308 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Cider + eggtop 34% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together838 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Clove and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 17,182 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

Cider
Forms the main liquid and supplies the tart, fruity flavor of the drink.
Eggs
Add richness and body, and their proteins help the drink become frothy when beaten and poured.
Cloves
Add a warm, aromatic spice flavor to the hot cider.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the tartness of the cider.

The step that matters

Pouring the boiling cider over the beaten eggs. Egg proteins set when exposed to high heat, so pouring the hot cider in too quickly without stirring can scramble the eggs. Adding it slowly while stirring gently warms the eggs and keeps the mixture smooth.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Allspicefits better
  4. Clovethe original

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