Name: Italian Confectioner
Ingredients: 1 small piece of vanilla; 1 small piece of cinnamon; 1 small piece of cloves; 2 citrons; 2 bitter oranges; juice of 12 lemons; rum to taste; brandy to taste; hot syrup

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 ↓

Italian Confectioner

Ingredients

Directions

Infuse

Infuse vanilla, cinnamon, cloves, citrons, and bitter oranges in hot syrup for several hours.
Add the juice of 12 lemons, rum, and brandy according to your taste and desired strength.

Strain and serve

Strain the mixture through a sieve or fine cloth.
Transfer to a bottle or decanter and chill in ice until served.

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.

Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together14,189 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
Vanilla + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,287 recipes

Shared aroma: 4-methoxybenzaldehyde (sweet, anise).
Rum + brandytop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,058 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Vanilla + rumtop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together728 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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

Citrons: Contribute aromatic citrus oil and bitterness to the infused base.
Bitter oranges: Add aromatic citrus oils and a bitter edge that balances the sweet syrup.
Lemon juice: Adds acidity that brightens the liqueur and balances the sugar in the syrup.
Rum: Adds alcohol strength and carries the spice and citrus aromas.
Brandy: Adds alcohol strength and a warm, rounded depth of flavour.

Swap the bitter orange

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (vanilla, cinnamon, clove, lemon, rum, brandy, syrup):

Orangefits better
Figfits better
Pearfits better
Bitter orangethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vanilla, cinnamon, clove, lemon, rum, brandy, syrup. 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.