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Drink

Wassail-bowl

A festive drink made by sweetening Malmsey Madeira or raisin wine, topping with custard, nutmeg, sugar, and almonds.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Raisin and almond are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,781 recipes. Both carry 2-nonanone, which smells fruity, floral. The science ↓

Wassail-bowl

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the wine

  1. Sweeten the Malmsey Madeira or raisin wine to taste.

Assemble and garnish

  1. Pour a high‑seasoned rich custard over the wine.

  2. Lightly strew nutmeg and grated sugar over the custard.

  3. Garnish with sliced blanched almonds.

Variation

  1. For a variation, use mild ale spiced or sweetened with a plain custard.

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. Raisin + almondtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,781 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  2. Nutmeg + almondtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,115 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Raisin + nutmegtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).

  4. Raisin + sugartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,481 recipes

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

  5. Sugar + almondtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,679 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

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

What each ingredient does

Malmsey madeira or raisin wine
Provides the base liquid and fruity, sweet flavour of the bowl.
Rich custard
Adds body and creaminess that softens the wine's sharpness.
Nutmeg
Contributes warm aroma that complements the custard and wine.
Sliced blanched almonds
Adds a light crunch and nutty contrast to the soft custard.

Swap the nutmeg

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegthe original
  3. Gingerfits less well
  4. Allspicefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against raisin, sugar, almond. 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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