Why it works: Apple and brandy are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,291 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓
Kerrison's Recipe for Cider
Ingredients
Directions
Select good, sound winter apples and prepare them in cool weather during November or December.
Place the apples into clean whiskey hogsheads without mixing in any water.
Keep the hogsheads in a consistently cool place to prevent excessive fermentation.
If fermentation becomes vigorous, add ½ gallon of apple whiskey or brandy to stop it.
Once fermentation subsides and crude particles settle, rack the cider into a clean hogshead.
Allow the cider to undergo partial fermentation, then rack it off again.
Ensure the cider runs forcefully into a large tub and is pumped back into the hogshead during racking.
Tightly bung the hogshead after each racking, keeping it full, but leave the bung out during fermentation.
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.
-
Apple + brandytop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,291 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
More apple cider recipes
You might also like
Apple Water81 recipes
Vegetable Soup350 recipes
Raspberry Vinegar214 recipes
Brown Coffee with Egg175 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.