Name: White Caudle
Ingredients: ½ cup thick gruel; ⅓ cup best brandy or ⅓ cup white wine; 2 tablespoons fine moist sugar; a pinch of grated nutmeg

Why it works: Brandy and nutmeg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,311 recipes. Both carry linalool, which smells floral, citrus. The science ↓

White Caudle

Ingredients

½ cup thick gruel
⅓ cup best brandy or ⅓ cup white wine
2 tablespoons fine moist sugar
a pinch of grated nutmeg

Directions

In a jug, combine the brandy (or white wine), sugar, and nutmeg.
Pour the hot gruel into the jug and stir well.
Serve immediately in cups with rusks, biscuits, or dry toast.

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.

Brandy + nutmegtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together4,311 recipes

Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
Brandy + sugartop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together11,939 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Sugar + nutmegtop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together23,364 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

Brandy and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 11,939 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

Gruel: Thickens the drink, giving it a warm, smooth, body-rich texture.
Brandy or white wine: Adds alcoholic warmth and aroma, balancing the sweetness of the drink.
Sugar: Adds sweetness and helps balance the alcohol's sharpness.