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Formula for Making Brandy

A formula for making brandy using spirit, nitric ether, cassia buds, bitter almond meal, orris root, cloves, capsicum, vinegar, brandy coloring, catechu, and Jamaica rum.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Cassia and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 194 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Formula for Making Brandy

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Mix all ingredients in an empty Cognac cask.

  2. Let the mixture macerate for a fortnight, stirring occasionally.

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. Cassia + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together194 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Brandy + rumtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,058 recipes

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

  3. Spirit + brandytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together209 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl benzoate (sweet).

  4. Clove + capsicumtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,438 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Almond + clovetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,605 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Pure or silent spirit
Acts as the solvent that extracts and carries the flavors and aromas from the other ingredients.
Ground cassia buds
Contribute warm, sweet spice aroma and flavor to the finished spirit.
Good vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens and balances the sweetness and spice.

Swap the cassia

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (spirit, almond, clove, capsicum, vinegar, brandy, rum):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Allspicefits better
  4. Cassiathe original

Fit is the average pairing score against spirit, almond, clove, capsicum, vinegar, brandy, rum. 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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