Why it works: Beer and gin work together. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and 22 recipes mention both. Both carry myrcene, which smells balsamic, herbaceous. The science ↓
The recipe
Ingredients
Directions
Set 3 quarts of water on the fire.
Mix enough oatmeal with 1 pint of cold water to thicken the mixture.
When boiling, pour in the oatmeal mixture.
Add 20 finely powdered Jamaica peppers and boil to a medium thickness.
Stir in sugar to taste, ½ pint of table beer, and 1 glass of gin.
Boil the mixture again.
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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
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Beer + gintop 11% of all pairsAroma overlaplowMentioned together22 recipes
Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).
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Pepper + beertop 9% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together939 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).
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Sugar + beertop 11% of all pairsAroma overlaplowMentioned together699 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Sugar + gintop 17% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together344 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Pepper + gintop 21% of all pairsAroma overlaplowMentioned together44 recipes
Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Oatmeal
- Thickens the liquid into a smooth, body-rich caudle as it cooks.
- Table beer
- Adds fermented, slightly sour flavour and some liquid body to the drink.
- Gin
- Adds alcohol and aromatic botanical flavour to the finished drink.
- Jamaica peppers
- Contribute warm, aromatic spice flavour as they simmer in the liquid.
The step that matters
Adding the oatmeal mixture to boiling water. Oatmeal starch thickens only when heated, and pouring it into water that is already boiling helps it disperse evenly. Stirring while pouring prevents lumps, which would give the caudle an uneven texture.
“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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