Why it works: Sugar and syrup match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,842 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓
Citron Cream, Crime De Cedrats Distillee
Ingredients
Directions
Infuse
Zest the citrons and add to the brandy in a well-corked jar with 4 pints of water.
Let the mixture infuse for several days.
Distill and sweeten
Distill the infusion using a bain-marie to yield about 18 pints.
Dissolve 3.5 pounds of sugar in 14 pints of water and mix with the distilled spirit.
Filter the mixture through a bag or cloth before bottling.
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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Sugar + syruptop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,842 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Brandy + sugartop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together11,939 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Brandy + syruptop 22% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together561 recipes
Brandy and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 11,939 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
- Citrons
- Their zest supplies the aromatic oils that flavour the spirit.
- Brandy
- Acts as the solvent that extracts flavour from the zest during infusion.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the finished liqueur and balances the citrus bitterness.
The step that matters
Distill the infusion using a bain-marie. A bain-marie heats the infusion gently through indirect water heat, so it does not scorch or overheat. Direct high heat can burn the mixture and give a harsh, cooked flavour to the distillate.
“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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