Skip to main content
Drink

An Excellent Bitter

A bitter infusion made from gentian, orange peel, ginger, water, and white wine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: White wine and sherry match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 307 recipes. Both carry 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells green bell pepper, earthy. The science ↓

An Excellent Bitter

Ingredients

Directions

Steep

  1. Cut the gentian into thin slices and place it in a stone jar.

  2. Add the fresh orange peel and sliced ginger to the jar.

  3. Pour 1 quart of boiling water over the ingredients and let it stand for 10 hours.

Finish and bottle

  1. Strain the mixture until clear, then add ⅓ cup of white wine.

  2. Bottle the mixture for use.

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. White wine + sherrytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together307 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  2. Orange + gingertop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,833 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  3. Orange + sherrytop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together823 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  4. Orange + white winetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together730 recipes

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

  5. Ginger + sherrytop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together499 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

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

What each ingredient does

Gentian
Provides the characteristic bitter flavour that defines the drink.
Fresh orange peel
Adds bright citrus aroma from its oils.
Sliced ginger
Adds a warm, spicy aroma and flavour.
White wine
Adds mild acidity and a little alcohol that carries the flavours.

Swap the ginger

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (orange, white wine, sherry):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Clovefits better
  3. Rosemaryfits better
  4. Gingerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against orange, white wine, sherry. 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.

You might also like

Ginger WineGinger Wine12 recipesWine WheyWine Whey111 recipesRaisin WineRaisin Wine64 recipesEgg WineEgg Wine58 recipes