Name: Claret Cup
Ingredients: 1 bottle of claret; ⅓ cup of maraschino or other liqueur; 2 bottles of soda or seltzer; 3 tablespoons of sugar; slices of fresh fruit (such as pineapple or peaches); borage

Why it works: Pineapple and borage share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7 recipes. Both carry acetic acid, which smells sour, vinegar. The science ↓

Claret Cup

Ingredients

1 bottle of claret
⅓ cup of maraschino or other liqueur
2 bottles of soda or seltzer
3 tablespoons of sugar
slices of fresh fruit (such as pineapple or peaches)
borage

Directions

Put the sugar in a jug.
Pour the claret and liqueur over the sugar and set in ice.
Slice the fruit into a bowl.
Pour the contents of the jug over the fruit.
Add the seltzer and borage.
Serve chilled.

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.

Pineapple + boragetop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together7 recipes

Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
Sugar + pineappletop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together4,841 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Sugar + boragetop 25% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together129 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

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

What each ingredient does

Claret: Provides the wine base, supplying the main body and fruity flavour of the drink.
Maraschino or other liqueur: Adds sweetness and aromatic depth that complements the wine and fruit.
Sugar: Sweetens the wine and liqueur, balancing the tannin and acidity of the claret.
Fresh fruit: Adds fresh flavour and aroma, and its juices mingle with the wine.