Name: British Brandy
Ingredients: 98 gallons silent spirit; 5 pounds red tartar; 3 pounds acetic ether; 3 gallons wine vinegar; 7 pounds bruised French plums; 1 ounce bruised bitter almonds; sufficient water; burnt-sugar coloring as required

Why it works: Plum and almond match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 211 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

British Brandy

Ingredients

Directions

Dissolve the red tartar in sufficient water.
Add the silent spirit, acetic ether, wine vinegar, bruised French plums, and bruised bitter almonds.
Distill the mixture to yield 120 gallons.
Add burnt-sugar coloring to achieve the 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.

Plum + almondtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together211 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Spirit + winetop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together701 recipes

Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).
Wine + plumtop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together343 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
Wine + vinegartop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,493 recipes

Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).
Spirit + vinegartop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together125 recipes

Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).

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

What each ingredient does

Silent spirit: Forms the alcoholic base that carries the flavors of the other ingredients.
Bruised french plums: Contribute fruit flavor and aroma to the distillate.
Bruised bitter almonds: Add a characteristic almond aroma to the spirit.
Wine vinegar: Adds acidity that contributes to the spirit's bright, tart character.
Acetic ether: Contributes fragrant aroma notes to the finished spirit.

Swap the almond

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (spirit, wine, vinegar, plum, sugar):

Almondthe original
Chestnutfits about as well
Beansfits about as well
Peasfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against spirit, wine, vinegar, plum, 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.