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Drink

An Ale Cup

A refreshing ale-based cocktail with sherry, lemon, mint, nutmeg, and ice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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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 ↓

An Ale Cup

Ingredients

Directions

Infuse

  1. Remove the lemon rind in fine strips and place them in a jug.

  2. Add the sherry, water, lemon juice, sugar, mint, and nutmeg to the jug.

  3. Cover and let the mixture stand for 20 minutes.

Strain and serve

  1. Strain the liquid into a glass jug.

  2. Add a few pieces of ice and the ale, then serve.

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 + minttop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,998 recipes

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

  2. Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

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

  3. Mint + nutmegtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together204 recipes

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

  4. Sherry + nutmegtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,246 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  5. Sherry + lemontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,273 recipes

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

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Bass ale
Provides the main body, malty flavour and bitterness of the drink.
Sherry
Adds dry, nutty depth and aromatic richness to the base.
Lemon juice
Supplies acidity that brightens the drink and balances the sweetness.
Castor sugar
Adds sweetness that softens the sharpness of the lemon and the bitterness of the ale.
Fresh mint
Contributes a cool, fresh aroma and herbal flavour during steeping.
Lemon rind
Releases fragrant oils that give the drink its citrus aroma.

The step that matters

Standing time for the infusion. Lemon rind and mint release aromatic oils into the liquid over time, but leaving them too long can draw out bitter compounds from the rind and leaves. Covering the jug keeps the aromas in while the flavours develop, so the 20 minutes should be watched rather than extended.

Swap the mint

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Mintthe original

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