Name: Claret Cup
Ingredients: 1 bottle of claret; 1 bottle of soda water; 4 tablespoons of sugar; 1 lemon; 1 glass of liqueur or brandy; 1 sprig of dried mint

Why it works: Lemon and mint 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 ↓

Claret Cup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

Combine the sugar and a small amount of claret in a bowl.
Slice the lemon.
Add the sliced lemon to the bowl along with the mint tied in a piece of muslin.
Pour in the remaining claret.
Cover the bowl.
Let it sit for half an hour.

Finish and serve

Remove the mint.
Add the liqueur.
Add the soda water.

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 + minttop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,998 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together53,532 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Sugar + brandytop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together11,939 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Brandy + minttop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together140 recipes

Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
Lemon + brandytop 23% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together5,351 recipes

Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

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

Claret: Forms the wine base that carries the flavour of the whole cup.
Sugar: Adds sweetness and balances the acidity of the lemon and wine.
Lemon: Adds acidity and aroma as its oils and juice steep into the wine.
Liqueur or brandy: Adds alcohol strength and extra aromatic depth to the cup.
Soda water: Adds dilution and light effervescence, lifting the drink.