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Drink

Absinthe

A spirit infused with wormwood, anise, calamus, orange, sugar syrup, and green coloring.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Anise and orange work together. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 44 recipes. Both carry pinene, which smells pine, turpentine. The science ↓

Absinthe

Ingredients

Directions

Make the absinthe

  1. Dissolve the oil of wormwood in the proof spirit.

  2. Add the oil of anise, oil of calamus, oil of orange, and white sugar syrup.

  3. Tint with a little green coloring.

Genuine Swiss method

  1. For genuine Swiss absinthe, macerate wormwood herb, star anise seed, green cherry leaves, and sage herb in proof spirit for a week.

  2. After a week, add oil of anise, oil of bergamot, and oil of fennel.

  3. Mix well and strain the absinthe.

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. Anise + orangetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together44 recipes

    Shared aroma: pinene (pine, turpentine).

  2. Sugar + syruptop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,842 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Spirit + orangetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together171 recipes

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

  4. Spirit + syruptop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together141 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Calamus + orangetop 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

Oil of wormwood
Provides the characteristic bitter flavour that defines absinthe.
Proof spirit
Acts as the alcoholic base that dissolves and carries the flavouring oils.
Oil of anise
Adds a sweet, liquorice-like aroma that rounds out the bitterness.
White sugar syrup
Adds sweetness that balances the bitter and aromatic herbal notes.

Swap the calamus

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against spirit, anise, orange, sugar, syrup. 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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