Name: Orange Brandy
Ingredients: 8 Seville oranges; 3 lemons; 3 lbs. lump sugar; 1 gallon brandy

Why it works: Orange and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,634 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Orange Brandy

Ingredients

8 Seville oranges
3 lemons
3 lbs. lump sugar
1 gallon brandy

Directions

Steep the rinds of the oranges and lemons with the sugar in the brandy for four days and nights, stirring often.
Strain the mixture through blotting paper.

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.

Orange + lemontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together10,634 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Orange + brandytop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,706 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together53,532 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Sugar + brandytop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together11,939 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Orange + sugartop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together19,212 recipes

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

Lemon and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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

Seville oranges: Their rinds supply aromatic oils and bitter, fragrant flavour to the brandy.
Lemons: Their rinds add bright citrus aroma and a touch of acidity to the infusion.
Lump sugar: Sweetens the liqueur and helps draw flavour from the rinds into the spirit.
Brandy: Acts as the solvent that extracts oils and flavour from the citrus rinds.