Name: Cideb White Wine
Ingredients: 9 gallons of honey; 2 quarts of spring water; 10 gallons of cider; 2 ounces of white tartar; 2 ounces of cloves; 2 ounces of cinnamon; 2 ounces of mace; ½ gallon of rum or brandy

Why it works: Clove and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Cideb White Wine

Ingredients

Directions

In a large container, combine the honey, spring water, and cider.
Mix in the white tartar.
Add the cloves, cinnamon, and mace, then stir well.
Finally, stir in the rum or brandy.

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.

Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together14,189 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
Clove + macetop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together8,400 recipes

Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).
Cider + rumtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together44 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).
Cinnamon + macetop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,611 recipes

Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).
Honey + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,446 recipes

Shared aroma: 4-methoxybenzaldehyde (sweet, anise).

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

What each ingredient does

Honey: Provides sweetness and body to the drink.
Cider: Forms the main liquid base and adds fruity flavour and acidity.
Cloves: Adds warm, aromatic spice flavour.
Cinnamon: Adds warm, sweet aroma and spice flavour.
Mace: Adds a delicate, aromatic spice flavour.
Rum or brandy: Adds aroma and a spirited, warming character.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (honey, cider, clove, cinnamon, rum):

Allspicefits better
Nutmegfits better
Gingerfits better
Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against honey, cider, clove, cinnamon, rum. 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.