Why it works: Sugar and spirit work together. They rank in the top 25% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 602 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓
Anisette De Bovrdeaux
Ingredients
Directions
Combine sugar and oil of aniseed in a bowl.
Gradually add rectified spirit while stirring.
Add water and mix well.
Filter the mixture before use.
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.
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Sugar + spirittop 25% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together602 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
- Oil of aniseed
- Provides the characteristic anise flavour and aroma that defines the liqueur.
- Rectified spirit
- Acts as the alcoholic base that carries the flavour and keeps the drink stable.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and softens the sharp taste of the alcohol and anise.
The step that matters
Adding the rectified spirit gradually while stirring. Oil of aniseed dissolves poorly in strong alcohol and can separate or cloud if poured in all at once. Adding the spirit slowly while stirring helps the oil and sugar disperse evenly before the water is added.
“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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