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Champagne Cup

A chilled cocktail of champagne, brandy, seltzer, Maraschino, lemon peel, and optional sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Champagne and brandy work together. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 169 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Champagne Cup

Ingredients

Directions

Chill

  1. Chill the champagne and seltzer water in a deep vessel surrounded by ice for 1 hour.

Make and serve

  1. In a large glass jug, add the lemon peel, Maraschino, and brandy.

  2. Pour in the chilled seltzer water and serve immediately.

  3. If desired, gradually stir in the castor sugar to avoid overflow.

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. Champagne + brandytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together169 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Champagne + lemontop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together404 recipes

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

  3. Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

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

  4. Brandy + sugartop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together11,939 recipes

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

  5. Brandy + lemontop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,351 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

Lemon and sugar 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

Champagne
Provides the sparkling base and most of the volume of the drink.
Brandy
Adds alcohol strength and a warming, rounded depth of flavour.
Seltzer water
Dilutes the wine and adds extra fizz without added sweetness.
Maraschino
Contributes sweetness and a cherry-almond aroma.
Lemon peel
Releases fragrant citrus oils that add aroma to the cup.

The step that matters

Stirring in the castor sugar gradually. Sugar gives carbonated liquid many nucleation points, so carbon dioxide escapes quickly and foams up. Adding it slowly, with gentle stirring, lets the sugar dissolve and keeps the foam under control.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (champagne, brandy, sugar):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Strawberryfits better
  3. Pineapplefits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against champagne, brandy, sugar. 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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