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Drink

Claret Cup

A chilled cocktail made with claret wine, Curaçao, Apollinaris, orange juice, brandy, sugar, mint leaves, cucumber rind, and strawberries.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Mint and cucumber work together. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 884 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Claret Cup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the cup

  1. Mix all ingredients except Apollinaris in a large pitcher.

  2. Add enough sugar to sweeten to taste.

  3. Chill the mixture on ice.

Serve

  1. Add chilled Apollinaris just before serving.

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. Mint + cucumbertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together884 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Orange + minttop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together549 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

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

  4. Wine + orangetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,046 recipes

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

  5. Orange + brandytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,706 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Claret wine
Forms the main body of the drink and supplies its fruity, tannic flavour.
Curaçao
Adds orange-flavoured sweetness and aroma to the blend.
Orange juice
Contributes acidity and fresh citrus brightness to balance the sweetness.
Apollinaris
Adds carbonation, giving the cup a lively fizz and lightness.
Strawberries
Add fruit flavour and a soft sweetness as they steep in the cup.

The step that matters

Add Apollinaris just before serving. Carbonation escapes quickly from sparkling water, especially when it is warm or stirred hard. Adding it at the last moment keeps the cup fizzy and lively.

Swap the cucumber

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

  1. Carrotfits about as well
  2. Capsicumfits about as well
  3. Sweet potatofits about as well
  4. Cucumberthe original

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