Name: Claret Cup
Ingredients: 1 bottle claret; 1 bottle soda water; 4 tablespoons powdered sugar; a little grated nutmeg; 1 liqueur glass Maraschino; 1 sprig mint; crushed ice

Why it works: Nutmeg and mint match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 204 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Claret Cup

Ingredients

Directions

Combine claret, soda water, powdered sugar, grated nutmeg, Maraschino liqueur, and mint in a large silver cup or pitcher.
Add crushed ice and serve.

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.

Nutmeg + minttop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together204 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Sugar + nutmegtop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together23,364 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
Sugar + minttop 32% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,592 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

Sugar and nutmeg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 23,364 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

Claret: Forms the wine base, providing the drink's main body, flavor, and color.
Soda water: Adds carbonation, lightening the drink and giving it a lively, bubbly texture.
Powdered sugar: Sweetens the drink and dissolves easily into the cold liquid.
Maraschino liqueur: Adds sweetness and a distinct cherry-like aroma to the wine base.