Why it works: Borage and cucumber share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 44 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓
Claret Cup
Ingredients
Directions
Make the cup
Combine the claret, soda water, lemonade, brandy, maraschino, borage, and cucumber peel in a large pitcher.
Let the borage and cucumber peel steep in the mixture for 10 minutes.
Sweeten the mixture to taste.
Serve
Serve chilled, especially in warm weather.
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.
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Borage + cucumbertop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together44 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Brandy + boragetop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together72 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Brandy + sugartop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together11,939 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Borage + sugartop 25% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together129 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
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Brandy + cucumbertop 26% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together97 recipes
Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
Brandy and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 11,939 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 that gives the cup its body and main flavour.
- Brandy
- Adds strength and warmth, deepening the flavour of the wine base.
- Lemonade
- Adds sweetness and acidity that balance the dry wine.
- Soda water
- Adds carbonation, making the cup lighter and more refreshing.
The step that matters
Steep the borage and cucumber peel for 10 minutes. Herbs and peel release aroma and flavour gradually into the liquid. Steeping too briefly leaves the cup weak in aroma, while steeping much longer can draw bitter or harsh notes from the peel and herb.
Swap the cucumber
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (brandy, borage, sugar):
- Arrowrootfits about as well
- Cucumberthe original
- Beetrootfits about as well
- Lettucefits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against brandy, borage, sugar. 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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