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Parisian Pousse Cafe. No. 1.

A layered cocktail made with raspberry syrup, maraschino, curacao, chartreuse, and brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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Why it works: Raspberry and brandy work together. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 235 recipes. Both carry (z)-hex-3-en-1-ol, which smells freshly cut grass green and herbaceous notes. The science ↓

Parisian Pousse Cafe. No. 1.

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a sherry wine glass, add 5 drops of raspberry syrup.

  2. Pour in ⅓ cup of maraschino.

  3. Add ⅓ cup of curacao.

  4. Next, pour in ⅓ cup of chartreuse.

  5. Finally, top with ⅓ cup of brandy.

  6. Serve without mixing the layers.

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. Raspberry + brandytop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together235 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-hex-3-en-1-ol (freshly cut grass green and herbaceous notes).

  2. Raspberry + syruptop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together377 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Syrup + brandytop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together561 recipes

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

What each ingredient does

Raspberry syrup
Sweetens and adds fruity flavor to the base layer.
Maraschino
Adds cherry-like sweetness and aroma to the layered drink.
Curacao
Contributes orange sweetness and aroma to the middle layer.
Chartreuse
Adds herbal aromatic complexity and strong flavor to the drink.
Brandy
Provides warming alcohol strength and aroma as the top layer.

The step that matters

Serve without mixing the layers. The layers hold because each liquid has a different density and sugar or alcohol content, so they stay separated. Pouring slowly over the back of a spoon and not stirring keeps the stack intact.

Swap the raspberry

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Apricotfits better
  3. Pearfits about as well
  4. Raspberrythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against syrup, brandy. 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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