Why it works: Orange and brandy are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,706 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓
Anothee Mode
Ingredients
Directions
Make the syrup
Boil a pound of sugar with a glass of water and skim it.
Let it boil to a pearl.
Take it off the fire and add half a pound of orange flowers.
Let it boil up two or three times in the syrup.
Take it off the fire and cover it closely.
Let it stand five or six hours.
Add the brandy
Put it on the fire again with a pint of brandy.
Let it warm on the fire until the brandy is mixed with the syrup.
Strain and bottle it.
Make the sugared flowers
When you have squeezed them dry, take half a pound of sugar and put it into a pre-serving pan with a very little water.
Boil, skim it clear, and let it continue to boil to the petite plume.
Add the orange flowers, and let them boil gently some time.
Take them off the fire, and stir them until the sugar is almost in powder.
Pour it on a tamis, taking care to have something beneath so as not to lose the sugar that passes through.
Store the flowers
Put the orange flowers in a jar closely covered, and keep them in a dry place.
They will be useful for creams and everything where orange flowers are used.
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. See the original page.
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.
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Orange + brandytop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,706 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Sugar + brandytop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together11,939 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Sugar + orangetop 20% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together19,212 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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
- Sugar
- Provides sweetness and, when boiled, forms the syrup and the sugar coating on the flowers.
- Orange flowers
- Supply the main orange-blossom aroma and flavour of the syrup.
- Brandy
- Carries the flavour through the syrup and adds alcohol that helps keep it stable.
The step that matters
Boiling the sugar to the pearl and petite plume stages. Sugar syrup changes texture as its concentration rises. Stopping too early leaves it thin and runny, while boiling too long makes it hard or grainy, so the stage must be judged carefully.
Swap the orange
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, brandy):
- Vanillafits better
- Apricotfits better
- Raisinfits better
- Orangethe 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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