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Drink

Ratafia

A liqueur made by steeping peach and apricot kernels in brandy, sweetened with sugar-candy dissolved in cold water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Peach and apricot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 342 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Ratafia

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the kernels

  1. Blanch the peach and apricot kernels.

  2. Bruise the blanched kernels.

  3. Place the bruised kernels in a bottle and fill it nearly to the top with brandy.

  4. Let the mixture sit for a month, then strain off the kernels.

Sweeten and bottle

  1. Dissolve the sugar-candy in cold water.

  2. Add the dissolved sugar-candy to the brandy.

  3. Filter the mixture through paper.

  4. Bottle the filtered mixture for use.

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. Peach + apricottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together342 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Apricot + brandytop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together513 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Peach + brandytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together339 recipes

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

  4. Peach + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,308 recipes

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

  5. Apricot + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,630 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Peach kernels
Provide the characteristic nutty, almond-like aroma that flavours the liqueur.
Apricot kernels
Add further nutty, almond-like aroma that flavours the liqueur.
Brandy
Extracts flavour from the bruised kernels and acts as the base spirit.
Sugar-candy
Adds sweetness to balance the strong, bitter edge of the kernels and brandy.

The step that matters

Bruise the blanched kernels. Bruising breaks the kernel cells so the brandy can draw out their flavour during the month of steeping. Whole kernels would flavour the liqueur far more slowly and weakly.

Swap the peach

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Peachthe original
  3. Figfits about as well
  4. Plumfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against apricot, 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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