Name: Muibeeey Wine
Ingredients: 1 gallon ripe mulberries; 1 gallon water; 6 ounces white sugar-candy, finely beaten; 1 pint white or Rhenish wine; a little bruised cinnamon

Why it works: Sugar and cinnamon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 30,779 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Muibeeey Wine

Ingredients

1 gallon ripe mulberries
1 gallon water
6 ounces white sugar-candy, finely beaten
1 pint white or Rhenish wine
a little bruised cinnamon

Directions

Prepare the mulberries

Gather ripe mulberries on a fine day and spread them on a cloth for 24 hours.

Make the syrup

Boil 1 gallon of water and skim it well.
Add a little bruised cinnamon to the water.
Mix in 6 ounces of finely beaten sugar-candy for every gallon.
Skim and strain the mixture after it settles.

Ferment and finish

Add the juice of the mulberries and 1 pint of wine for every gallon of mixture.
Let it stand in a cask for 6 days to settle.
Draw off the wine and keep it cool.

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.

Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together30,779 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Wine + cinnamontop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,170 recipes

Shared aroma: 4-methoxybenzaldehyde (sweet, anise).
Sugar + winetop 31% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together9,581 recipes

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

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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

Ripe mulberries: Provide the main fruit flavour, colour and juice for the wine.
Sugar-candy: Adds sweetness and body to the finished wine.
White or rhenish wine: Adds acidity and helps the mixture ferment and keep.

“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.