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Drink

Fine Apple Toddy

A fortified drink made with cognac, apple brandy, peach brandy, Jamaica spirits, curaçao, lemon, champagne, powdered sugar, water, and roasted apples.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Cognac brandy and champagne share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 28 recipes. Both carry ethyl isobutyrate, which smells fruity, ethereal. The science ↓

Fine Apple Toddy

Ingredients

Directions

Make the punch base

  1. In a large container, combine the cognac brandy, apple brandy, peach brandy, Jamaica spirits, and curaçao.

  2. Add the sliced lemons and powdered sugar, stirring until the sugar dissolves.

  3. Pour in the water and mix well.

  4. Add the roasted and quartered apples.

Chill and serve

  1. Chill the mixture, then serve in glasses topped with champagne.

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. Cognac brandy + champagnetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together28 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  2. Brandy + champagnetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together169 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Cognac brandy + brandytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together82 recipes

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

  4. Brandy + spirittop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together209 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl benzoate (sweet).

  5. Apple brandy + brandytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together12 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

What each ingredient does

Albemarle pippin apples
Roasted apples add a soft, caramelized sweetness and apple aroma to the punch.
Powdered sugar
Dissolves fully into the liquid to add sweetness that balances the alcohol and acidity.
Lemons
Add acidity and bright citrus aroma that cut through the sweetness of the spirits.
Champagne
Adds carbonation and a light, fresh lift to the finished glass.

The step that matters

Dissolving the powdered sugar. Powdered sugar must be stirred in until fully dissolved before the water is added; undissolved sugar leaves grittiness and an uneven sweetness in the punch, and the mixture should be well chilled so the flavors blend and the drink is balanced.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cognac brandy, apple brandy, peach, brandy, spirit, champagne, sugar):

  1. Applefits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Apricotfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cognac brandy, apple brandy, peach, brandy, spirit, champagne, 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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