Skip to main content
Drink

Ratafia a LA Violette

A large-batch liqueur of spirits infused with orris root, fennel, Benjamin, Balsam of Tolu, citrus peel and spices, then sweetened with sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 33 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Lemon and coriander match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,498 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Ratafia a LA Violette

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base infusions

  1. Combine the Florentine orrice root, archel, and rectified spirits of wine in a large container.

  2. Digest and strain.

  3. Add 4 pounds of sugar to the strained mixture.

  4. For the fennel mixture, combine fennel seed, fennel herb, rectified spirit, and water.

  5. Digest the fennel mixture.

  6. Add 10 ounces of sugar to the fennel mixture.

  7. Strain the fennel mixture after digesting.

Make the Benjamin and Tolu mixtures

  1. For the Benjamin mixture, combine Benjamin, rectified spirit, and boiling water.

  2. Once cooled, strain the Benjamin mixture.

  3. Add 1 pound 8 ounces of sugar to the strained Benjamin mixture.

  4. For the Balsam of Tolu mixture, combine Balsam of Tolu, rectified spirits, and boiling water.

  5. Strain the Balsam of Tolu mixture.

  6. Add 1 pound 8 ounces of sugar to the strained Balsam of Tolu mixture.

Make the flavoured spirits and colour

  1. For the citronelle, distill fresh orange peel, fresh lemon peel, cloves, and coriander in proof spirit.

  2. Add white sugar to the citronelle.

  3. For the cream of Barbados, distill orange peel, lemon peel, cinnamon, mace, and cloves in rum.

  4. Add sufficient white sugar to the cream of Barbados.

  5. For the cedrat, distill lemon peel in rectified spirit.

  6. Add simple syrup to the cedrat.

  7. For parfait amour, use the same method as cedrat.

  8. Color the parfait amour with a little cochineal.

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. Lemon + coriandertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,498 recipes

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

  2. Orange + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,634 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  3. Fennel + coriandertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together426 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  4. Fennel + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together723 recipes

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

  5. Fennel + orangetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together201 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

Sugar
Sweetens the infusions and balances the strong spirit flavours.
Rectified spirit
Extracts and dissolves the aromatic compounds from the botanicals into the liquid.
Fennel seed
Contributes a sweet anise-like aroma to the fennel mixture.
Cinnamon
Adds warm, sweet spice aroma to the cream of Barbados.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (spirit, wine, sugar, fennel, orange, lemon, coriander):

  1. Cardamomfits better
  2. Cinnamonfits better
  3. Rosemaryfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against spirit, wine, sugar, fennel, orange, lemon, coriander. 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.

You might also like

Lemon WineLemon Wine31 recipesWine WheyWine Whey111 recipesRaisin WineRaisin Wine64 recipesEgg WineEgg Wine58 recipes