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Drink

Brandy, Gin and Whiskey Smash

A chilled cocktail made with brandy, sugar, water, shaved ice, and mint, with gin or whiskey as alternatives.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and brandy are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 19% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,939 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Brandy, Gin and Whiskey Smash

Ingredients

Directions

Build the drink

  1. Combine the sugar and water in a small bar glass.

  2. Add the brandy and fill the glass two-thirds full with shaved ice.

Garnish and vary

  1. Garnish with two sprigs of mint.

  2. For gin smash, substitute gin for brandy; for whiskey smash, substitute whiskey.

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. Sugar + brandytop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together11,939 recipes

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

  2. Brandy + minttop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together140 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  3. Sugar + minttop 32% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,592 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

Sugar and brandy barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 11,939 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

Brandy
Forms the spirit base and supplies most of the drink's flavor and warmth.
White sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the strength of the spirit.
Mint
Adds a fresh aroma that lifts the drink.
Shaved ice
Chills the drink and slowly dilutes it as it melts.

Swap the mint

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Gingerfits better
  4. Mintthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, brandy. 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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