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Hypocras

Hypocras is a spiced wine made by infusing red wine with sugar, spices, citrus peel, and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and clove 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 ↓

Hypocras

Ingredients

Directions

Make the infusion

  1. Dissolve powdered sugar in a quart of red wine.

  2. Add cinnamon, coriander seeds, white peppercorns, orange peel, mace, lemon juice, and cloves.

  3. Let the mixture infuse for 3 to 4 hours.

  4. Stir in the milk.

Filter and bottle

  1. Filter the liquid through a flannel or cotton bag until clear.

  2. Bottle it for use.

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 + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Coriander + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,498 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Orange + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,634 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  4. Cinnamon + orangetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,437 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Cinnamon + coriandertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,635 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

What each ingredient does

Red wine
Forms the liquid base and carries the spice and sugar flavours.
Powdered loaf sugar
Dissolves into the wine to add sweetness and balance the acidity.
Milk
Binds with proteins that settle out, helping the wine clear when filtered.
Cloves
Contribute a strong aromatic warmth that infuses into the wine.

The step that matters

Filter the liquid until clear. Milk added to the wine causes fine solids to coagulate and settle. Filtering through flannel or cotton removes these particles, so the spiced wine becomes clear rather than cloudy.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (red wine, sugar, cinnamon, coriander, orange, lemon, clove):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against red wine, sugar, cinnamon, coriander, orange, lemon, clove. 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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