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A French Recipe for Mulled Wine

Mulled wine made with water, spices, sugar, wine, and orange rind.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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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 ↓

A French Recipe for Mulled Wine

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syrup

  1. Boil the spices in water with sugar and orange rind until it forms a thick syrup, being careful not to burn it.

Add the wine and serve

  1. Pour in the wine and stir until it is just about to boil.

  2. Serve immediately.

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. Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Ginger + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,380 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Clove + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Ginger + orangetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,833 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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

What each ingredient does

Claret or port wine
Forms the main liquid and carries most of the drink's flavor and body.
Sugar
Sweetens the drink and, when boiled with water, thickens into a syrup that holds the spices.
Cloves
Contribute a strong, warm aroma to the drink.
Cinnamon
Adds a sweet, woody aroma and warmth to the drink.
Ginger
Adds a sharp, warm aroma and a gentle peppery bite.
Orange rind
Releases citrus oils that add a bright aroma to the wine.

The step that matters

Watch the syrup so it does not burn. Sugar scorches quickly once it gets very hot, and burnt sugar turns bitter and dark, spoiling the whole drink. Stirring and watching the syrup as it thickens keeps it sweet and clean-tasting.

Swap the orange

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (clove, ginger, cinnamon, sugar, port wine):

  1. Figfits about as well
  2. Pearfits about as well
  3. Orangethe original
  4. Vanillafits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against clove, ginger, cinnamon, sugar, port wine. 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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