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American Mint Julep

A chilled cocktail made with powdered sugar, mint leaves, sherry wine, brandy, and broken ice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Sherry and brandy are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,209 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

American Mint Julep

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a tumbler glass, combine the powdered sugar and fresh mint leaves.

  2. Add the sherry wine and brandy.

  3. Fill the tumbler with broken ice and stir well.

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. Sherry + brandytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,209 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Wine + brandytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,427 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

  3. Mint + winetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together442 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Mint + sherrytop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together83 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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

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

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

Powdered sugar
Dissolves easily into the liquor and adds sweetness that balances the alcohol.
Fresh mint leaves
Release aromatic oils when muddled with sugar, giving the drink its fresh minty aroma.
Sherry wine
Adds a nutty, fortified-wine flavour and body to the liquid base.
Brandy
Provides the main spirit flavour and alcohol strength of the julep.

The step that matters

Stir well with the broken ice. Stirring chills the drink and melts some ice to dilute the strong spirits. Broken ice melts quickly, so stirring thoroughly gives a cold, balanced drink rather than a harsh, warm one.

Swap the mint

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, sherry, wine, brandy. 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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