Name: Sleeper, an American Drink
Ingredients: 5 pints of old rum; 1 ounce of powdered sugar; 2 eggs; ½ lemon (juice only); 6 cloves; 6 coriander seeds; a small piece of cinnamon; 1 pint of water

Why it works: Clove and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Sleeper, an American Drink

Ingredients

Directions

Combine

In a bowl, combine the rum, powdered sugar, egg yolks, and lemon juice.
Boil the spices in ½ pint of water, then strain the liquid into the bowl.
Whisk all ingredients together until frothy.

Serve

Pour the drink into glasses while 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.

Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together14,189 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
Lemon + coriandertop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,498 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Coriander + cinnamontop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,635 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Lemon + cinnamontop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together7,950 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Clove + coriandertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,221 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Old rum: Forms the alcoholic base and carries the flavor of the whole drink.
Eggs: Egg proteins trap air when whisked, creating a light froth and body.
Powdered sugar: Adds sweetness that balances the rum and lemon.
Lemon juice: Adds acidity that brightens the sweetness and richness of the drink.
Cloves: Contribute warm, aromatic spice flavor when steeped in the water.
Cinnamon: Contributes warm, sweet aroma from the spice infusion.

The step that matters

Whisk all ingredients together until frothy. Egg proteins must be beaten enough to trap air and form a stable froth. Under-whisking leaves the drink flat and separated, while the lightly foamed texture comes from thorough mixing.

Swap the coriander

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rum, sugar, egg, lemon, clove, cinnamon):

Nutmegfits better
Allspicefits better
Cardamomfits better
Corianderthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rum, sugar, egg, lemon, clove, cinnamon. 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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Sleeper, an American Drink