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Drink

Rye Whiskey

A flavored rye whiskey made with honey, wintergreen, and brandy coloring.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Honey and brandy work together. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 169 recipes. Both carry ethyl benzoate, which smells sweet. The science ↓

Rye Whiskey

Ingredients

Directions

Blend the base

  1. Mix the whiskey and water in a large container.

  2. Add the honey and stir until dissolved.

Flavour and colour

  1. In a separate container, combine the wintergreen with the alcohol and acetic ether.

  2. Pour the mixture into the whiskey blend and stir well.

  3. Add a small amount of brandy coloring to achieve desired color.

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. Honey + brandytop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together169 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl benzoate (sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Rectified whiskey
Forms the spirit base and provides most of the alcohol and body.
Honey
Adds sweetness and a rounder, smoother mouthfeel to the spirit.
Wintergreen
Provides the dominant minty aroma and flavour.
Alcohol
Dissolves the wintergreen and acetic ether so they blend evenly into the whiskey.
Acetic ether
Contributes a light fruity aroma that rounds out the flavour.

The step that matters

Stir the wintergreen mixture into the whiskey blend. Wintergreen and ether flavour compounds dissolve best in alcohol, not water. Stirring well spreads them evenly, so the flavour is consistent throughout rather than strong in some portions and weak in others.

“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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