Name: Raspberry Royal
Ingredients: 4 quarts raspberries; 1 quart cider vinegar; 1 pound sugar; 1 pint brandy

Why it works: Cider and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,431 recipes. Both carry 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol, which smells smoky, clove. The science ↓

Raspberry Royal

Ingredients

4 quarts raspberries
1 quart cider vinegar
1 pound sugar
1 pint brandy

Directions

Prepare

Place 4 quarts of raspberries in a stone jar.
Pour 1 quart of cider vinegar over the berries.
Add 1 pound of sugar and mash to a paste.

Steep and strain

Let the mixture stand in the sun for 4 hours.
Strain the mixture.
Add 1 pint of brandy.

Bottle and store

Bottle the mixture and seal the bottle.
Store the bottle in the cellar.

Serve

To serve, stir 2 tablespoons of the mixture into a glass of ice water.

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.

Cider + vinegartop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,431 recipes

Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).
Cider + brandytop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together404 recipes

Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).
Vinegar + sugartop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together20,806 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Vinegar + brandytop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together344 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Sugar + brandytop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together11,939 recipes

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

Sugar and brandy 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

Raspberries: Supply the main fruit flavor and the bulk of the liqueur.
Cider vinegar: Adds acidity that brightens the fruit and helps keep the mixture tart.
Sugar: Sweetens the mixture and helps draw juice out of the mashed berries.
Brandy: Adds alcohol that carries aroma and helps preserve the finished liqueur.

“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.