Why it works: Sugar and brandy are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 19% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,939 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓
Raspberry Brandy
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the juice
Scald the raspberries in a stone jar set in a kettle of water or on a hot hearth.
Strain the juice without pressing when it runs freely.
Boil the juice with the sugar and skim off any foam.
Once clear, pour out the mixture and let it cool.
Finish and bottle
Add an equal quantity of brandy to the cooled juice.
Shake well and bottle.
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 + brandytop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together11,939 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Sugar and brandy 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
- Raspberries
- Provide the flavour and colour, and their juice forms the base of the drink.
- Loaf sugar
- Sweetens the juice and balances the brandy.
- Brandy
- Acts as the spirit base that preserves the mixture and carries the fruit aroma.
The step that matters
Boil the juice with the sugar and skim off any foam. Boiling dissolves the sugar fully into the juice, and skimming removes foam made of impurities and fruit solids so the finished liquor stays clear rather than cloudy.
“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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