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Cider Cup

A chilled cider-based cocktail with mint, sugar, lemon rind, sherry, Curaçao, and soda water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Mint and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,998 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Cider Cup

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Put the iced cider into a large jug.

  2. Add the sprig of mint.

  3. Rub the sugar on the lemon rind, then pound it and add to the jug.

  4. Pour in the sherry and Curaçao.

  5. Finally, add the iced soda water and stir gently.

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. Mint + lemontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,998 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Cider + sherrytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together143 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl pentanoate (yeast, fruit).

  3. Lemon + sherrytop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,273 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  4. Cider + minttop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together115 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  5. Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Sugar and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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

Iced cider
Forms the main liquid base and provides the apple flavour of the cup.
Sherry
Adds dry, nutty depth and body to the blend.
Curaçao
Adds orange aroma and a touch of sweetness.
Soda water
Adds lightness and fizz, so the cup tastes crisp rather than heavy.
Sugar
Sweetens the cup and draws oils from the lemon rind into the drink.

The step that matters

Add the soda water last and stir gently. Soda water holds its carbonation only while cold and undisturbed. Adding it last and stirring gently keeps the fizz from escaping, so the cup stays lively.

Swap the mint

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cider, sugar, lemon, sherry):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Allspicefits better
  4. Mintthe original

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