Why it works: Apricot and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,630 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Ratafia De Cerises
Ingredients
Directions
Infuse and blend
Infuse wild cherries in alcohol for several days.
Strain the infusion and mix with essence of apricot kernels.
Sweeten, bottle and age
Add sugar and water, stirring until dissolved.
Bottle the mixture and let it age for a few weeks before serving.
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.
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Apricot + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together3,630 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Wild cherries
- Provide the main cherry flavour and colour as they infuse into the alcohol.
- Alcohol
- Extracts flavour from the cherries and helps preserve the finished liqueur.
- Essence of apricot kernels
- Adds a distinct almond-like aroma that rounds out the cherry flavour.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and body, balancing the alcohol's sharpness.
The step that matters
Bottle the mixture and let it age. Resting for a few weeks lets the alcohol and flavourings blend and mellow, so the drink tastes smoother and more rounded than it does when freshly made.
“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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