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Drink

Porter Cup

A chilled alcoholic beverage made with porter, table ale, brandy, ginger syrup, sugar, nutmeg, soda, and optional borage or cucumber rind.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and borage share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 76 recipes. Both carry acetic acid, which smells sour, vinegar. The science ↓

Porter Cup

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Combine the porter, table ale, brandy, syrup of ginger, sugar, and grated nutmeg in a covered jug.

  2. Chill the jug in ice or a cold place for a short time.

  3. Just before serving, stir in the carbonate of soda.

  4. Add a sprig of borage or fresh cucumber rind if desired.

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 + boragetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together76 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  2. Ginger + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,324 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Syrup + sugartop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,842 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Brandy + nutmegtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,311 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  5. Syrup + gingertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together950 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Porter
Forms the liquid base and gives the drink its dark colour and malty flavour.
Carbonate of soda
Reacts with the acidic drink to release gas, adding lightness and fizz when stirred in.
Syrup of ginger
Adds sweetness and a warm, spicy aroma.
Brandy
Adds strength and a warming, aromatic depth to the drink.

The step that matters

Stir in the carbonate of soda just before serving. Carbonate of soda reacts with the acids in the drink and releases carbon dioxide, so the fizz fades if it is added too early. Stirring it in at the last moment keeps the drink lively.

Swap the borage

The recipe marks borage as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (brandy, syrup, ginger, sugar, nutmeg):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Clovefits better
  4. Boragethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against brandy, syrup, ginger, 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.

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