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Drink

Brandy Bitters

A bitter infusion made with gentian root, orange peel, cardamom, cinnamon, cochineal, spirit, and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Cardamom and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,299 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Brandy Bitters

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Combine gentian root, orange peel, cardamoms, cinnamon, and cochineal in a large container.

  2. Add rectified spirit and water to the mixture and stir well to combine all ingredients.

  3. Bottle the mixture in four-ounce octagon bottles.

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. Cardamom + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,299 recipes

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

  2. Orange + cardamomtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together228 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Orange + cinnamontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,437 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Orange + spirittop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together171 recipes

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

  5. Cinnamon + spirittop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together150 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Gentian root
Provides the bitter base flavor that defines the character of the bitters.
Orange peel
Adds bright citrus aroma and a touch of bitterness to balance the blend.
Cardamoms
Contributes warm, aromatic spice notes to the infusion.
Cinnamon
Adds sweet warm spice aroma that rounds out the botanical blend.
Rectified spirit
Acts as the solvent that extracts flavor and aroma from the botanicals.

Swap the orange

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

  1. Limefits about as well
  2. Orangethe original
  3. Vanillafits less well
  4. Lemonfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against cardamom, cinnamon, spirit. 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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