Name: Ratafia of Cherries
Ingredients: 10 pounds wild cherries; 10 pounds Morello cherries; 2 teaspoons cinnamon; 2 teaspoons mace; 8 pints brandy; 2 pounds strawberries; 2 pounds raspberries; 4 ounces coriander seeds; 4 ounces sugar for every pint of juice

Why it works: Cinnamon and coriander match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,635 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Ratafia of Cherries

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Crush the wild and Morello cherries, then strain the juice through a sieve.
Pound the stones, coriander, cinnamon, and mace separately.

Infuse and sweeten

Infuse the crushed fruit and spices in a jar with the brandy.
Add sugar to the strained juice, then mix well.

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 + coriandertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,635 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Cinnamon + macetop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,611 recipes

Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).
Cinnamon + sugartop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together30,779 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Cinnamon + brandytop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,199 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
Brandy + sugartop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together11,939 recipes

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

Cinnamon and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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 fruit juice and flavour base for the ratafia.
Morello cherries: Add tart acidity and deep colour to the fruit base.
Brandy: Extracts flavour from the fruit and spices and preserves the finished liqueur.
Sugar: Sweetens the strained juice and balances the sharpness of the cherries.

Swap the mace

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

Cardamomfits better
Nutmegfits better
Gingerfits better
Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cinnamon, brandy, coriander, 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.