Skip to main content
Drink

Nonpareil Water

A distilled spirit flavored with bergamot, lemon, citron, and rosemary essences.

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

Why it works: Lemon and rosemary match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 845 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Nonpareil Water

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Combine all ingredients in a large container and mix thoroughly.

  2. Distill the mixture in a warm-water bath.

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. Lemon + rosemarytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together845 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Bergamot + spirittop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together73 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Bergamot + rosemarytop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together44 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Bergamot + lemontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together108 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Spirit + rosemarytop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together94 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Rectified spirit
Alcohol base that dissolves the essential oils and carries their aroma through the mixture.
Essence of bergamot
Adds a floral, citrusy aroma that defines the character of the water.
Essence of lemon
Contributes a bright, sharp citrus aroma.
Essence of citron
Adds a fragrant citrus note that rounds out the lemon and bergamot.
Spirit of rosemary
Adds a resinous, herbal aroma to the blend.

The step that matters

Distill in a warm-water bath. Alcohol boils at a lower temperature than water, so the bath must stay warm rather than hot. Overheating can drive off the delicate aromatic oils and spoil the flavour, and alcohol vapour is flammable, so the heat needs careful control.

Swap the bergamot

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lemon, spirit, rosemary):

  1. Orangefits better
  2. Limefits better
  3. Bergamotthe original
  4. Cherryfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against lemon, spirit, rosemary. 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

Lemon WheyLemon Whey33 recipesLemon WineLemon Wine31 recipesLemon SquashLemon Squash10 recipesLemon EssenceLemon Essence8 recipes