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Drink

Claret Cup

A chilled beverage made with light claret, brandy, lemon, water, sugar, and flavored with borage.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and borage match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 102 recipes. Both carry acetic acid, which smells sour, vinegar. The science ↓

Claret Cup

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a large pitcher, combine the light claret and brandy.

  2. Add the peeled lemon and water.

  3. Stir in sugar to taste.

  4. Flavour with borage before serving.

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. Lemon + boragetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together102 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  2. Brandy + boragetop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together72 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  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

Light claret
Forms the wine base that gives the cup its body and main flavour.
Brandy
Adds strength and a warm, aromatic note to the wine base.
Lemon peel
Contributes aromatic oils and a bright, tart edge to the drink.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the acidity of the lemon and the dryness of the wine.

Swap the borage

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits about as well
  3. Boragethe original
  4. Gingerfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against brandy, lemon, 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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