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Mint Cordial or Julep

A mint cordial made by steeping mint in brandy, sweetened with sugar, clarified with milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Brandy and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,738 recipes. Both carry gamma-nonanolactone, which smells coconut, sweet. The science ↓

Mint Cordial or Julep

Ingredients

Directions

Infuse

  1. In a large container, combine 5 gallons of brandy with as much fresh spear mint as can fit without bruising.

  2. Let the mixture sit for 24 hours.

Combine and clarify

  1. In another vessel, place 16¼ pounds of loaf sugar and cover it with either 5 gallons of clear ice or 3 gallons of ice water.

  2. Pour the brandy from the mint into the sugar and water mixture and stir well.

  3. To clarify the cordial, mix in 2/3 cup of new milk 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. Brandy + milktop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,738 recipes

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

  2. Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

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

  3. Brandy + sugartop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together11,939 recipes

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

  4. Brandy + minttop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together140 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  5. Mint + milktop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together458 recipes

    Shared aroma: phellandrene (minty).

Sugar and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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

Brandy
Acts as the solvent that extracts the mint's aromatic oils and flavor.
Fresh spear mint
Supplies the main aroma and fresh minty flavor as it steeps in the brandy.
Loaf sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the strong flavor of the brandy and mint.
New milk
Its proteins bind fine particles and rise, helping clarify the cordial.

Swap the mint

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against brandy, sugar, milk. 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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