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Drink

Brandy Smash

A chilled brandy cocktail with shaved ice, mint, orange, and berries.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Mint and orange work together. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 549 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Brandy Smash

Ingredients

Directions

Make the drink

  1. In a small tumbler, combine the sugar and water until dissolved.

  2. Add the brandy and fill the tumbler two-thirds full with shaved ice.

Garnish and serve

  1. Garnish with mint sprigs, orange pieces, and seasonal berries.

  2. Serve through a strainer or moustache cup.

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. Mint + orangetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together549 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Brandy + orangetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,706 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  3. Sugar + brandytop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together11,939 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Sugar + orangetop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together19,212 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Brandy + minttop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together140 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

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

Brandy
Provides the main spirit flavour and alcohol base of the drink.
White sugar
Sweetens the drink and balances the strength of the brandy.
Mint
Adds a fresh, aromatic scent that lifts the brandy.

Swap the mint

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Gingerfits better
  3. Clovefits better
  4. Mintthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, brandy, orange. 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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