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Drink

Anisette

A liqueur made by macerating cumin, orris root, lemon peel, and aniseed in spirits, then adding Capillaire.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Cumin and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,477 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Anisette

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Macerate the cumin seed, orris root, lemon peel, and aniseed in the spirits for 30 days.

  2. Filter the mixture.

  3. Add the Capillaire.

  4. Bottle.

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. Cumin + lemontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,477 recipes

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

  2. Lemon + spirittop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together256 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Cumin + spirittop 38% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Spirits
Acts as the solvent that draws aromatic oils out of the botanicals and carries their flavour.
Aniseed
Supplies the dominant anise flavour from aromatic oils that dissolve readily in alcohol.
Cumin seed
Adds a warm, earthy aroma from its volatile oils.
Orris root
Contributes a floral, violet-like aroma that rounds out the other botanicals.
Lemon peel
Adds bright citrus aroma from the oils held in the peel.
Capillaire
Adds sweetness that balances the strong alcohol and the spice flavours.

The step that matters

Macerate for the full 30 days. Alcohol extracts aromatic oils from the botanicals slowly over time. Cutting the steeping short leaves the spirit thin and under-flavoured, so the full period matters for a rounded anise character.

Swap the cumin

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lemon, spirit):

  1. Rosemaryfits better
  2. Peppermintfits better
  3. Mintfits better
  4. Cuminthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lemon, spirit. 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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