Name: Moselle Cup
Ingredients: 1 bottle still or sparkling Moselle; 1 bottle soda water; 1 glass sherry or brandy; 4-5 thin slices of pineapple; peel of half a lemon, cut very thin; powdered sugar to taste; clear ice

Why it works: Sherry and pineapple work together. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 228 recipes. Both carry ethyl isobutyrate, which smells fruity, ethereal. The science ↓

Moselle Cup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the cocktail

Combine the Moselle and soda water in a large pitcher.
Add the sherry or brandy, pineapple slices, lemon peel, and powdered sugar.
Let the mixture stand for about an hour.

Serve

Before serving, add some clear ice.

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.

Sherry + pineappletop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together228 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).
Pineapple + lemontop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,964 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Sherry + lemontop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,273 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together53,532 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Pineapple + sugartop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together4,841 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Lemon and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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

Moselle: Provides the wine base that carries the drink's flavour and body.
Sherry or brandy: Adds extra strength and a warming, aromatic depth to the wine.
Pineapple slices: Contribute fruity aroma and a touch of sweetness as they steep.
Powdered sugar: Sweetens the drink and balances the acidity of the wine.