Why it works: Lemon and cucumber match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,067 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓
Moselle Cup
Ingredients
Directions
Combine the lemon rind, lemon juice, sugar, cucumber, Curacao, and Moselle wine in a jug.
Cover and let it stand for 15 to 20 minutes.
Add the seltzer or soda water and a little crushed ice.
Serve immediately.
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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Lemon + cucumbertop 9% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,067 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Wine + lemontop 13% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together6,157 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Wine + cucumbertop 20% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together485 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Cucumber + sugartop 26% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,112 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Lemon and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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
- Moselle wine
- Forms the base of the drink, supplying most of its body and light, fruity acidity.
- Curacao liqueur
- Adds orange flavour and sweetness, aromatic depth to the drink.
- Lemon
- Its juice and rind add acidity and bright citrus aroma.
- Castor sugar
- Sweetens the drink and balances the acidity of the lemon and wine.
The step that matters
Let it stand before adding the fizz. Steeping lets the lemon rind, cucumber and Curacao flavour the wine. Adding seltzer too early would dilute the mixture before those flavours have developed.
Swap the cucumber
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (wine, lemon, sugar):
- Arrowrootfits better
- Shallotfits better
- Capsicumfits better
- Cucumberthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against wine, lemon, 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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