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Drink

Mint Julep

A cocktail made with mint, sugar, peach brandy, common brandy, and pounded ice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Peach and brandy work together. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 339 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Mint Julep

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Place the mint sprigs in a tumbler.

  2. Add the sugar and both types of brandy.

  3. Fill the tumbler with pounded ice.

  4. Stir well 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.

  1. Peach + brandytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together339 recipes

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

  2. Mint + peachtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together100 recipes

    Shared aroma: phellandrene (minty).

  3. Sugar + peachtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,308 recipes

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

  4. Sugar + brandytop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together11,939 recipes

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

  5. Mint + brandytop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together140 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

Sugar and brandy barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 11,939 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

Mint
Releases fresh aroma into the spirit as it sits and is stirred.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that softens the strong alcohol and balances the mint.
Peach brandy
Adds fruity flavour and aroma that complements the mint.
Common brandy
Provides the main spirit base and its alcoholic warmth.
Pounded ice
Chills the drink and dilutes it gradually as it melts.

The step that matters

Stir well. Stirring chills the drink and melts some ice, diluting it evenly. Too little stirring leaves the sugar undissolved and the drink harsh and unevenly cold.

Swap the mint

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

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

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