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Drink

To Mull Wine

A wine made by boiling cinnamon, cloves, allspice, nutmeg, and port wine with sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

To Mull Wine

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Boil cinnamon, cloves, allspice, and grated nutmeg in water for a few minutes.

  2. Add the port wine and sugar to taste.

  3. Beat the mixture well until combined and serve.

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. Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Cinnamon + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Allspice + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,331 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

Port wine
Provides the main liquid, along with sweetness, body and fruity flavor.
Sugar
Adds sweetness, adjusted to taste to balance the wine and spices.
Cinnamon
Adds warm, sweet aroma to the spiced drink.
Cloves
Adds a strong, warm aroma that stands out in the drink.
Allspice
Adds a warm, peppery aroma that blends cinnamon and clove notes.
Grated nutmeg
Adds a warm, aromatic flavor to the spiced drink.

The step that matters

Boiling the spices in water. Spice flavor comes from compounds released into hot liquid over time. Boiling for only a short time gives a weak, flat flavor, so the spices need to steep long enough before the wine is added.

“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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