Why it works: Syrup and spirit work together. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 141 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓
Capillaire
Ingredients
Directions
Add ⅓ cup of Curaçao to 1 pint of clarified syrup.
Dissolve 1 dram of oil of neroli in 2 ounces of rectified spirit.
Add a few drops of the oil mixture to the clarified syrup.
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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Syrup + spirittop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together141 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Clarified syrup
- Provides the sweet liquid base that carries the flavour of the dish.
- Curaçao
- Adds orange-peel aroma and a mild bitter-sweet citrus flavour to the syrup.
- Oil of neroli
- Supplies a concentrated floral citrus aroma that scents the syrup.
- Rectified spirit
- Dissolves the oil of neroli so it can mix evenly into the syrup.
The step that matters
Dissolve the oil of neroli fully in the spirit before adding it. Essential oils do not mix with water-based syrup. Dissolving them first in alcohol lets the aroma disperse evenly, so adding only a few drops avoids an overpowering or patchy flavour.
“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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