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Cool Tankard

A chilled ale-based cocktail with wine, brandy, orange‑flower syrup, balm, toast, and nutmeg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: White wine and brandy work together. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 620 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Cool Tankard

Oven, in the book's wordsA cool oven

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a large pitcher, combine the ale, white wine, brandy, and syrup.

  2. Add the balm and stir well to incorporate the flavors.

  3. Rub the warm toast with nutmeg and place it in the mixture.

  4. Let it sit for 15 minutes before serving.

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. White wine + brandytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together620 recipes

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

  2. Brandy + nutmegtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,311 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  3. White wine + nutmegtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,659 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

  4. Brandy + syruptop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together561 recipes
  5. Syrup + nutmegtop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together523 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Ale
Forms the liquid base and gives the drink its malty body.
White wine
Adds acidity and lightness that balance the sweetness of the syrup.
Brandy
Adds warmth and strength, and carries the aromas of the other ingredients.
Toast
Absorbs liquid and releases its toasted flavour into the drink as it steeps.
Balm
Contributes a fresh, lemony aroma to the drink.

The step that matters

Let it sit for 15 minutes before serving. Steeping lets the toast, balm and nutmeg flavours diffuse into the liquid. Serving too soon leaves the drink tasting like separate ingredients rather than one blended drink.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (white wine, brandy, syrup):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Clovefits about as well
  3. Nutmegthe original
  4. Thymefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against white wine, brandy, syrup. 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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