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Ratafia Liqueurs

A fruit liqueur made by infusing fruit juice with cognac, sugar syrup, and vanilla, cinnamon, and clove essences.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and clove 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 ↓

Ratafia Liqueurs

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Combine the fruit juice and cognac in a large mixing bowl.

  2. In a separate pot, dissolve the sugar in water over low heat to create a syrup.

  3. Add the syrup to the fruit and cognac mixture.

Flavour and bottle

  1. Stir in the vanilla, cinnamon, and clove essences, then mix thoroughly to combine all ingredients.

  2. Bottle the liqueur in pint bottles, cork, and seal.

  3. Let the liqueur age for 6 to 12 months 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. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Vanilla + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-methoxybenzaldehyde (sweet, anise).

  3. Black currant + vanillatop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together35 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-methoxybenzaldehyde (sweet, anise).

  4. Black currant + cinnamontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together28 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-methoxybenzaldehyde (sweet, anise).

  5. Vanilla + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,049 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

What each ingredient does

Fruit juice
Provides the main fruit flavour and colour of the liqueur.
Cognac brandy
Adds alcohol strength and warming aroma, and helps preserve the liqueur.
Loaf sugar
Sweetens the liqueur and balances the acidity of the fruit juice.

The step that matters

Dissolving the sugar in water. The sugar must fully dissolve over low heat so the syrup blends evenly with the juice and brandy. Undissolved sugar can leave grains in the bottled liqueur and uneven sweetness.

Swap the black currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cognac brandy, sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, clove):

  1. Peachfits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Applefits better
  4. Black currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cognac brandy, sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, clove. 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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