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Drink

Mint Julep

A chilled mint cocktail with powdered sugar, water, cognac brandy, shaved ice, and fruit garnish.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Mint and orange work together. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 549 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Mint Julep

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. In a soda water glass, mix the powdered sugar and water until dissolved.

  2. Press the mint sprigs into the sugar mixture to extract the flavor.

Build and serve

  1. Add the cognac brandy and fill the glass with shaved ice.

  2. Insert the mint sprigs into the ice with the stems downwards, forming a bouquet.

  3. Garnish with raspberries or strawberries and orange slices.

  4. Sprinkle a little powdered sugar over the mint for a frosted appearance.

  5. Insert 2 straws and 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. Mint + orangetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together549 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Cognac brandy + orangetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together134 recipes

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

  3. Mint + cognac brandytop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together23 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Sugar + orangetop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together19,212 recipes

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

  5. Sugar + cognac brandytop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together301 recipes

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

Sugar and orange barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 19,212 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

Powdered sugar
Dissolves in the water to sweeten the drink and balances the brandy.
Young mint
Pressing the sprigs releases aromatic oils that give the julep its fresh flavor.
Cognac brandy
Provides the spirit base and warming, aromatic character of the drink.
Shaved ice
Chills the drink and dilutes it slightly as it melts, softening the spirit.

The step that matters

Press the mint sprigs into the sugar mixture to extract the flavor.. Pressing gently releases essential oils from the leaves into the syrup. Pressing too hard tears the leaves and releases bitter chlorophyll compounds, which make the drink taste grassy and harsh.

Swap the mint

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Gingerfits better
  3. Clovefits better
  4. Mintthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, cognac brandy, orange. 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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