Why it works: Red currant and black currant share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 72 recipes. Both carry isoamyl acetate, which smells banana, pear. The science ↓
Ratafia of Foub Fbttitb
1 quart juiceIngredients
Directions
Prepare the juice
Pick and mix the cherries, raspberries, red currants, and black currants.
Press the fruits to extract the juice, measuring it to obtain 1 quart.
Flavour and bottle
Dissolve the sugar in the juice, then add the brandy, mace, and cloves.
Let the mixture stand for some time, then filter and bottle it.
Keep the bottles well corked.
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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Red currant + black curranttop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together72 recipes
Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).
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Mace + clovetop 6% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together8,400 recipes
Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).
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Black currant + clovetop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together40 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).
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Red currant + clovetop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together128 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl benzoate (fruity, sweet).
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Brandy + clovetop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,362 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
- Very ripe cherries
- Provide the main fruit juice and body of the drink.
- Raspberries
- Add fruity aroma and a bright, lively flavour to the juice.
- Red currants
- Contribute tartness and acidity that balances the sugar.
- Black currants
- Add deep colour and a sharp, concentrated fruit flavour.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the extracted juice, softening the fruit's tartness.
- Brandy
- Acts as a preservative and carries the spice and fruit aromas.
The step that matters
Dissolve the sugar in the juice before adding the brandy. Sugar dissolves much more readily in a liquid than in alcohol, so adding it to the juice first ensures even sweetness. Adding brandy first can leave grains of sugar undissolved and an uneven, harsh-tasting drink.
Swap the mace
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (red currant, black currant, sugar, brandy, clove):
- Cinnamonfits better
- Nutmegfits better
- Allspicefits better
- Macethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against red currant, black currant, sugar, brandy, clove. 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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