Name: An Admirable Cool Cup
Ingredients: 6 ounces sugar in lumps; rind of 1 large fresh lemon; juice of 1.5 lemons; 1 bottle good cider; ⅓ cup sherry (3 large wineglasses); nearly ½ small nutmeg, lightly grated; fresh balm or borage (optional)

Why it works: Lemon and borage match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 102 recipes. Both carry acetic acid, which smells sour, vinegar. The science ↓

An Admirable Cool Cup

Ingredients

6 ounces sugar in lumps
rind of 1 large fresh lemon
juice of 1.5 lemons
1 bottle good cider
⅓ cup sherry (3 large wineglasses)
nearly ½ small nutmeg, lightly grated
fresh balm or borage (optional)

Directions

Prepare the base

Weigh the sugar and rub the lemon rind on it to extract essence.
Put the sugar and strained lemon juice into a deep jug.
Dissolve the sugar, then pour in the cider and sherry.

Finish and serve

Add the grated nutmeg and stir well.
Serve with or without sprigs of fresh balm or borage.
For a cooler drink, cover and chill in ice for a short time.

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.

Lemon + boragetop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together102 recipes

Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
Nutmeg + boragetop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together76 recipes

Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together11,318 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Cider + sherrytop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together143 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl pentanoate (yeast, fruit).
Sherry + boragetop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together50 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).

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

What each ingredient does

Sugar: Sweetens the drink and, rubbed with the rind, carries the lemon oils into it.
Lemon juice: Adds acidity that balances the sweetness and brightens the drink.
Cider: Forms the main liquid and supplies the drink's apple flavour.
Sherry: Adds body and a rounded, fortified wine flavour to the cider.
Nutmeg: Contributes warm, aromatic spice notes to the drink.

Swap the borage

The recipe marks borage as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, lemon, cider, sherry, nutmeg):

Cinnamonfits better
Allspicefits about as well
Thymefits about as well
Boragethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, lemon, cider, sherry, 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.