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Drink

Anisette

Anisette is a sweet liqueur made from star anise, anise, sweet fennel, coriander, sassafras, orris, ambrette, alcohol, water, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Star anise and fennel share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 88 recipes. Both carry cis-anethole, which smells anise. The science ↓

Anisette

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Combine the essences of star anise, anise, sweet fennel, coriander, sassafras, orris, and ambrette in a large container.

  2. Add the alcohol and water to the mixture.

  3. Stir in the sugar until fully dissolved.

  4. Let the mixture sit for a few days to develop the flavors before using.

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 + fenneltop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together88 recipes

    Shared aroma: cis-anethole (anise).

  2. Anise + fenneltop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together47 recipes

    Shared aroma: cis-anethole (anise).

  3. Star anise + anisetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6 recipes

    Shared aroma: cis-anethole (anise).

  4. Fennel + coriandertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together426 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  5. Anise + coriandertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together86 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

What each ingredient does

Essence of star anise
Provides the main licorice-like aroma that defines the liqueur.
Alcohol
Extracts and dissolves the aromatic compounds from the essences and preserves the liqueur.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and rounds out the sharpness of the anise flavors.

The step that matters

Let the mixture sit for a few days. Aromatic compounds need time to dissolve fully and blend into the alcohol and water. Using the liqueur too soon leaves the flavors harsh and disjointed.

Swap the coriander

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Cuminfits better
  3. Nutmegfits about as well
  4. Corianderthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against star anise, anise, fennel, sugar. 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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