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Fruit in Brandy

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Plum and pear match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 245 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Fruit in Brandy

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Take a barrel that holds the amount of brandy you plan to use for the year.

  2. Calculate the amount of water needed to reduce the English spirit to 30 degrees.

  3. Dissolve a sufficient quantity of brown sugar-candy and boil it to a pearl (1 part sugar to 2/3 part brandy).

  4. Mix the sugar solution with the brandy in the barrel.

  5. Leave the mixture in a cool, dark place for a year until the fruit season arrives.

  6. Tap the barrel to use the liquor for preserving fruit.

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. Plum + peartop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together245 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Peach + apricottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together342 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Apricot + plumtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together284 recipes

    Shared aroma: damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Peach + plumtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together163 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Apricot + peartop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together218 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

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

Swap the pear

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (peach, apricot, plum, brandy, sugar):

  1. Vanillafits about as well
  2. Pearthe original
  3. Figfits less well
  4. Applefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against peach, apricot, plum, brandy, sugar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

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