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Currant Ratafia

A sweet liqueur made by infusing brandy with black currant juice, spices, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Currant Ratafia

Ingredients

Directions

Make the ratafia

  1. In a large bottle, combine the brandy and black currant juice.

  2. Add the cinnamon, cloves, and peach kernels.

  3. Dissolve the sugar in the mixture.

Steep and bottle

  1. Cover the bottle and let it stand for two weeks.

  2. Strain through flannel and bottle.

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. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Black currant + cinnamontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together28 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-methoxybenzaldehyde (sweet, anise).

  3. Cinnamon + peachtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together625 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  4. Black currant + clovetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together40 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  5. Clove + peachtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together280 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

What each ingredient does

Brandy
Alcohol base that slowly extracts and holds the flavours from the fruit and spices.
Black currant juice
Provides the main fruit flavour and a tart edge to the drink.
White sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the sharpness of the alcohol and the fruit.
Cinnamon
Adds warm aroma to the finished drink.
Cloves
Adds a strong, warm spiced aroma.
Peach kernels
Adds a subtle nutty, almond-like aroma.

The step that matters

Let it stand for two weeks. Flavour comes from the alcohol slowly drawing compounds out of the juice, spices and kernels. Opening or straining too early leaves the ratafia thin and harsh, because the spices and kernels have not yet given up their aroma.

Swap the black currant

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Pearfits better
  4. Black currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against brandy, cinnamon, clove, peach, sugar. 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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