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Drink

Spirit of Almonds

A spirit made by infusing bitter almonds and angelica root in brandy, then distilling.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and angelica match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 135 recipes. Both carry alpha-pinene, which smells pine, turpentine. The science ↓

Spirit of Almonds

5 pints

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Pound the bitter almonds very fine.

  2. Moisten the almonds with water to prevent them from oiling.

Infuse and distill

  1. Add the crushed angelica root and mix with the brandy.

  2. Let the mixture infuse for 14 days.

  3. Distill the mixture to yield 5 pints.

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. Almond + angelicatop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together135 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  2. Almond + brandytop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,969 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).

  3. Brandy + angelicatop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together88 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

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

What each ingredient does

Bitter almonds
Provide the characteristic almond flavour once pounded and released into the spirit.
Brandy
Acts as the solvent that extracts flavour from the almonds and angelica root.
Angelica root
Adds aromatic, herbal notes to the finished spirit.

The step that matters

Moisten the almonds with water. Adding water to the pounded almonds keeps their oil from separating and turning greasy, which helps the flavour extract evenly into the brandy.

Swap the angelica

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (almond, brandy):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Angelicathe original
  4. Clovefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against almond, brandy. 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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