Skip to main content
Drink

Bitters, an Excellent Tonic

A tonic made by infusing juniper berries, gentian root, coriander, orange peel, calamus, snake root, cardamom, and whisky.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Coriander and cardamom match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 872 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Bitters, an Excellent Tonic

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the gentian root into small pieces.

  2. Pound the other ingredients in a mortar.

Infuse

  1. Combine all ingredients in a large bottle or jar with the whisky.

  2. Shake the bottle lightly when first adding the ingredients, but not afterwards.

  3. Let it stand for 12 days, carefully corked.

Finish

  1. Strain and bottle for use.

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. Coriander + cardamomtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together872 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Orange + cardamomtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together228 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Coriander + orangetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together674 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  4. Coriander + calamustop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-decenal (green, must).

  5. Orange + calamustop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together13 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Juniper berries
Provide the main aromatic, resinous character of the finished bitters.
Gentian root
Supplies the core bitterness that defines the drink.
Coriander seeds
Add a warm, citrusy aroma that rounds out the bitter notes.
Orange peel
Adds bright citrus aroma and a fresh top note.
Malt whisky
Acts as the solvent that draws aroma and flavour compounds out of the botanicals.

The step that matters

Let it stand for 12 days, carefully corked.. Alcohol extracts flavour compounds from plant material slowly, so the full time is needed for the bitterness and aroma to develop. A tight cork keeps the alcohol from evaporating and the strength of the mix steady.

Swap the calamus

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (coriander, orange, cardamom, malt whisky):

  1. Gingerfits better
  2. Cinnamonfits better
  3. Cuminfits better
  4. Calamusthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against coriander, orange, cardamom, malt whisky. 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.

More bitters recipes

Brandy 11Orange 4Ale 3Hop 3 See all 5 →

You might also like

Orange SyrupOrange Syrup47 recipesOrange Water IceOrange Water Ice28 recipesVegetable SoupVegetable Soup350 recipesRaspberry VinegarRaspberry Vinegar214 recipes