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Ratafia of Cherries

A cherry liqueur made by steeping cherry pulp, stones, peach leaves, spices, sugar, and brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 of Cherries

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cherries

  1. Crush and strain the pulp of the cherries.

  2. Pound the stones and add them to a pan with the cherry pulp.

  3. Boil the mixture once and let it cool.

  4. Measure the juice; when you have 15 pints, add the peach leaves, cinnamon, and cloves.

Steep and bottle

  1. Add the sugar and brandy, then mix well.

  2. Transfer to a jar and let it steep for a month.

  3. Draw off the liquid and bottle it.

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. Peach + cinnamontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together625 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  3. Peach + clovetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together280 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  4. Cinnamon + sugartop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Peach + brandytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together339 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

Morello cherry juice
Provides the main fruit flavour and most of the liquid base.
Brandy
Adds alcohol that extracts and preserves the flavours during steeping.
Sugar
Sweetens the liqueur and balances the tartness of the cherries.
Peach leaves
Contributes a subtle almond-like aroma during steeping.

The step that matters

Measure the juice before adding flavourings. The leaves and spices are added once the juice reaches 15 pints, so the balance of juice, brandy and sugar depends on measuring accurately. Adding them at the wrong volume shifts the flavour strength of the finished ratafia.

Swap the peach

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Quincefits better
  4. Peachthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against brandy, cinnamon, clove, 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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