Why it works: Clove and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓
New Orleans Coffee Brulo
Ingredients
Directions
Place a lump of sugar for each person in a wide-mouthed bowl.
Add whole cloves, broken cinnamon stalks, and minced orange peel.
Pour brandy over the mixture and light it, stirring occasionally.
When the flame goes out, pour in enough black strong coffee to fill the bowl.
Stir once more and ladle the brew into coffee cups.
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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Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together14,189 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
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Cinnamon + mandarin orangetop 9% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together16 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together30,779 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Cinnamon + coffeetop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together895 recipes
Shared aroma: 4-methoxybenzaldehyde (sweet, anise).
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Cinnamon + brandytop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,199 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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
- Brandy
- Burns off during lighting, leaving a warm, rich flavor infused into the brew.
- Whole cloves
- Release warm, aromatic spice oils into the liquid as they steep.
- Cinnamon
- Adds sweet, woody aroma that blends with the coffee and citrus.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the brew and helps caramelize slightly when the brandy is lit.
The step that matters
Lighting the brandy. Alcohol vapor ignites only when warm enough, so the brandy must be poured over the mixture and lit carefully. Stirring occasionally keeps the flame even and helps the sugar and spices release their flavor into the liquid.
Swap the mandarin orange
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, clove, cinnamon, brandy, coffee):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Figfits better
- Mandarin orangethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, clove, cinnamon, brandy, coffee. 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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