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Mulled Claret

A warm beverage made by simmering claret with spices, sugar, and brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Mulled Claret

Ingredients

Directions

Make the spiced syrup

  1. Boil water with cinnamon and mace for a while.

  2. Add white sugar and stir until dissolved, avoiding boiling.

Combine and serve

  1. Warm the claret gently without boiling.

  2. Strain the spiced water into the claret.

  3. Add grated nutmeg and brandy.

  4. Serve in a jug.

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. Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Mace + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Cinnamon + macetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  4. Cinnamon + sugartop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Cinnamon + brandytop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,199 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

Cinnamon and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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

Claret
Forms the wine base, supplying most of the liquid, body and flavour of the drink.
White sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the tannins and acidity of the wine.
Cinnamon
Contributes warm, aromatic spice flavour to the spiced water.
Mace
Adds a delicate, warm aroma that complements the cinnamon and nutmeg.
Brandy
Adds extra alcoholic strength and a rounded, warming aroma to the finished drink.

The step that matters

Warm the claret gently without boiling. Boiling wine drives off alcohol and volatile aromatics and can make the flavour harsh, so the claret should only be heated until warm.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Clovefits better
  2. Allspicefits better
  3. Cardamomfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cinnamon, sugar, nutmeg, brandy. 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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