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Drink

Cool Tankard, or Beer Cup

A chilled beverage made with mild ale, white wine, brandy, capillaire, lemon juice, and garnished with lemon peel, nutmeg, and optional herbs.

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

Cool Tankard, or Beer Cup

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a large pitcher, combine the mild ale, white wine, brandy, capillaire, and lemon juice.

  2. Add the thin lemon peel and a sprinkle of grated nutmeg on top.

  3. Garnish with a sprig of borage or balm if desired.

  4. Serve with a piece of toasted bread on the side.

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. Nutmeg + boragetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together76 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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

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

  4. White wine + brandytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together620 recipes

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

  5. White wine + lemontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,832 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

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

What each ingredient does

Mild ale
Forms the liquid base, giving the drink its body and light malty flavor.
Brandy
Adds warmth and a strong aroma to the drink.
White wine
Adds acidity and fruity brightness to the blend.
Capillaire
Provides sweetness to balance the acidity and alcohol.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the drink and balances the sweetness.

Swap the borage

The recipe marks borage as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (white wine, brandy, sugar, lemon, nutmeg, bread):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Marjoramfits about as well
  3. Clovefits about as well
  4. Boragethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against white wine, brandy, sugar, lemon, nutmeg, bread. 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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