Why it works: Arrowroot and brandy work together. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 141 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Arrowroot
Ingredients
Directions
Make the paste
Mix the arrowroot with a little cold water to form a smooth paste.
Dissolve the sugar in the boiling water.
Thicken and serve
Gradually mix the sugar water with the arrowroot paste.
Return to the saucepan and stir until it boils.
Add the brandy or sherry and serve hot.
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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Arrowroot + brandytop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together141 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + brandytop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together11,939 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Arrowroot + sugartop 20% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,073 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
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
- Arrowroot
- Thickens the liquid into a smooth, glossy pudding when heated and stirred.
- Castor sugar
- Sweetens the pudding and dissolves easily in the hot water.
- Brandy or sherry
- Adds flavour and aroma to the finished pudding.
The step that matters
Stir the arrowroot paste into the hot liquid gradually. Adding the paste too quickly or without stirring causes lumps. Arrowroot thickens as it heats and must be stirred until it boils to set smoothly.
Swap the arrowroot
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, brandy):
- Sweet potatofits about as well
- Arrowrootthe original
- Beetrootfits less well
- Shallotfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, 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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