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Drink

Ordinary Anisette

Anisette is a flavored liqueur made from star anise, bitter almonds, orris root, and coriander.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Star anise and coriander match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 178 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Ordinary Anisette

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Crush the star anise and bitter almonds.

  2. Mix all ingredients together in a bowl.

Steep and bottle

  1. Let the mixture sit for a few hours to blend the flavors.

  2. Strain the mixture to remove solids.

  3. Bottle the liquid and seal tightly.

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. Star anise + coriandertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together178 recipes

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

  2. Star anise + almondtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Almond + coriandertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together563 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine (cocoa, roasted).

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

What each ingredient does

Star anise
Provides the dominant licorice-like aroma that defines the anisette flavor.
Bitter almonds
Adds a bitter, nutty aroma that rounds out the sweet anise notes.
Florentine orris root
Acts as a fixative that helps the aromatic compounds persist and adds a subtle floral note.
Coriander
Contributes a warm, citrusy aromatic note to the blend.

The step that matters

Let the mixture sit for a few hours. Steeping lets the aromatic compounds from the crushed spices and nuts gradually dissolve into the liquid. If the rest is too short, the flavor stays weak and unbalanced, so allow the full time before straining.

Swap the almond

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (star anise, coriander):

  1. Chickpeafits better
  2. Beansfits better
  3. Sesamefits better
  4. Almondthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against star anise, coriander. 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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