Why it works: Nutmeg and borage share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 76 recipes. Both carry acetic acid, which smells sour, vinegar. The science ↓
Claret-cup
Ingredients
Directions
Combine all ingredients in a large silver cup.
Adjust the amount of ice based on the weather; use more if it's very warm.
Serve the cup with a clean napkin through one of the handles to wipe the edge after each guest.
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.
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Nutmeg + boragetop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together76 recipes
Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
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Sugar + nutmegtop 20% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together23,364 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
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Sugar + boragetop 25% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together129 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
Sugar and nutmeg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 23,364 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
- Claret
- Provides the main wine body, colour and fruity flavour of the drink.
- Powdered sugar
- Adds sweetness that dissolves easily into the cold liquid.
- Maraschino liqueur
- Adds sweetness and a cherry-like aroma to the cup.
- Pounded ice
- Chills the drink and dilutes it slowly as it melts.
The step that matters
Adjusting the ice. Too little ice leaves the cup warm, while too much dilutes the wine and dulls its flavour. Ice should be matched to the weather, since heat speeds melting and thins the drink faster.
Swap the borage
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, nutmeg):
- Cinnamonfits better
- Allspicefits better
- Clovefits better
- Boragethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, nutmeg. 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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