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Mulled Ale

A warm beverage made by heating ale with sugar, cloves, nutmeg, and rum.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Mulled Ale

Why it works: Nutmeg and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,686 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Mulled Ale

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Heat the ale in a saucepan with the sugar and cloves.

  2. Make a jug hot by rinsing it with hot water.

Serve

  1. Pour the heated ale into the hot jug.

  2. Add grated nutmeg and rum to taste.

  3. Serve warm.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Nutmeg + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Rum + nutmegtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together646 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  3. Rum + sugartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,908 recipes

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

  4. Rum + clovetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together270 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  5. Sugar + nutmegtop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together23,364 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

Ale
Forms the warm liquid base that carries the other flavours.
Sugar
Adds sweetness to balance the bitterness of the ale and spices.
Rum
Adds alcohol and a warming, aromatic depth to the drink.
Cloves
Contribute a sharp, aromatic spice flavour as the ale heats.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Allspicefits better
  3. Clovethe original
  4. Cardamomfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against rum, 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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