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Drink

Saffron Tea

A tea made by infusing saffron in hot water, then adding brandy and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Brandy and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 19% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,939 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Saffron Tea

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Mix saffron with hot water.

  2. Let it infuse for 10 minutes.

  3. Add brandy and sugar.

  4. Serve hot or cold.

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. Brandy + sugartop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together11,939 recipes

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

  2. Saffron + brandytop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together75 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  3. Saffron + sugartop 30% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together650 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

Brandy and sugar 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

Saffron
Gives the tea its golden colour and distinctive floral aroma.
Hot water
Draws colour and flavour out of the saffron threads during infusion.
Brandy
Adds aroma and a warming alcoholic edge to the tea.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the brandy and saffron.

The step that matters

Let it infuse for 10 minutes. Saffron releases its colour and flavour slowly into hot liquid. Serving too early leaves the tea pale and weakly flavoured, so allow the full infusion time.

Swap the saffron

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (brandy, sugar):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Gingerfits better
  4. Saffronthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against brandy, sugar. 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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