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Drink

Mulled Claret

A warm beverage made by simmering claret with water, spices, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Mulled Claret

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a saucepan, combine water, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and cloves.

  2. Bring to a boil for 1 minute, then strain out the spices.

  3. Add claret and sugar to the spiced water.

  4. Heat the mixture until hot, but remove from heat before it boils.

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. Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Nutmeg + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Cinnamon + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,380 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Ginger + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

Claret
Provides the main wine base, adding body, acidity and fruit flavour to the drink.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the acidity of the wine and the warm spices.
Cinnamon
Contributes warm, aromatic flavour that carries through the spiced infusion.

The step that matters

Heat the mixture until hot, but remove from heat before it boils. Boiling wine drives off alcohol and can make its fruit flavour taste harsh or cooked. Gentle heating keeps the wine tasting fresh while the spices and sugar blend in.

Swap the ginger

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cinnamon, nutmeg, clove, sugar):

  1. Allspicefits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Gingerthe original
  4. Fennelfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against cinnamon, nutmeg, clove, sugar. 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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