Name: Orange or Lemon Brandy Another Way
Ingredients: 1 quart brandy; 1 quart water; ¾ pound sugar; orange or lemon rinds, cut thin

Why it works: Brandy and orange are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,706 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Orange or Lemon Brandy Another Way

Ingredients

1 quart brandy
1 quart water
¾ pound sugar
orange or lemon rinds, cut thin

Directions

Prepare

Steep the orange or lemon rinds in 1 quart of brandy.
Boil 1 quart of water and add ¾ pound of sugar, boiling until dissolved.

Combine and store

Let the mixture cool, then combine it with the brandy.
Bottle the mixture for storage.

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.

Brandy + orangetop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,706 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Brandy + sugartop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together11,939 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Sugar + orangetop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together19,212 recipes

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

Brandy and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 11,939 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Orange or lemon rinds: Provide the citrus aroma and flavor oils that the brandy extracts during steeping.
Brandy: Extracts the flavor from the rinds and acts as the spirit base of the liqueur.
Sugar: Dissolved in boiling water to add sweetness and balance the alcohol.