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Cider Cup

A chilled cider-based cocktail with rum, orange bitters, lemon juice, sugar, soda water, pineapple, and borage.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and orange match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,634 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Cider Cup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the cup

  1. Combine the sugar, lemon juice, and orange bitters in a bowl.

  2. Stir well.

  3. Add the cider, soda water, and rum.

  4. Mix gently.

Garnish and serve

  1. Decorate with pineapple nuggets and borage sprigs.

  2. Chill well with ice 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 + orangetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,634 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  3. Rum + pineappletop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  4. Orange + pineappletop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,664 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  5. Cider + rumtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together44 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

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

What each ingredient does

Sugar
Adds sweetness to balance the acidity of the lemon and cider.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the drink and balances the sweetness.
Cider
Forms the main liquid base and contributes fruity flavour.
Soda water
Adds carbonation, giving the drink lightness and fizz.
Rum
Adds body and a warm, aromatic spirit note.

The step that matters

Mix gently after adding the cider, soda water, and rum. Carbonation is lost quickly when liquids are stirred vigorously or poured from height. Gentle mixing keeps the soda water fizzy so the cup stays lively rather than flat.

Swap the borage

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, lemon, orange, cider, rum, pineapple):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Gingerfits better
  3. Peppermintfits better
  4. Boragethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, lemon, orange, cider, rum, pineapple. 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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