Why it works: Nutmeg and gin work together. They rank in the top 26% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 31 recipes. Both carry alpha-pinene, which smells pine, turpentine. The science ↓
Nutmeg Extract
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Grate or pound the nutmegs.
Put the grated nutmegs into a bottle.
Steep
Add 4 tablespoons of gin for each nutmeg.
Seal the bottle and let it sit for a few weeks.
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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Nutmeg + gintop 26% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together31 recipes
Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Nutmeg
- Supplies the aromatic oils and compounds that flavour the finished extract.
- Gin
- Alcohol solvent that draws aromatic oils out of the ground nutmeg over time.
The step that matters
Let the bottle sit for a few weeks. Alcohol extracts flavour compounds slowly, so the aroma and taste strengthen gradually. Opening or using the extract too early gives a weak, underdeveloped flavour.
“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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