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Drink

Cider Cup

A refreshing drink made with toasted bread, nutmeg, lemon rind, sugar, sherry, brandy, lemon juice, soda water, cider, borage or balm, and rice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 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 ↓

Cider Cup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Place the toasted bread at the bottom of a large jug.

  2. Grate nutmeg over the bread.

  3. Add lemon rind and sugar on top.

Mix and serve

  1. Pour sherry, brandy, lemon juice, soda water, and cider over the mixture.

  2. Mix well and add borage or balm and rice.

  3. Serve immediately.

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. Nutmeg + lemontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

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

  4. Sherry + brandytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,209 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  5. Sherry + cidertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together143 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl pentanoate (yeast, fruit).

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

What each ingredient does

Sherry
Adds body and a dry, wine-like flavour to the punch.
Brandy
Adds alcoholic strength and warming aroma.
Cider
Forms the main liquid base and adds apple sweetness and acidity.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the lemon juice and sherry.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the drink and balances sweetness.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, nutmeg, sugar, sherry, brandy, cider, borage):

  1. Vanillafits about as well
  2. Figfits about as well
  3. Applefits about as well
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, nutmeg, sugar, sherry, brandy, cider, borage. 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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