Name: An Excellent Bitter
Ingredients: 1 quart brandy; 2 ounces gentian root; ½ ounce Virginia snakeroot; ½ teaspoon cochineal

An Excellent Bitter

Ingredients

1 quart brandy
2 ounces gentian root
½ ounce Virginia snakeroot
½ teaspoon cochineal

Directions

Steep the gentian root, Virginia snakeroot, and cochineal in the brandy for three days.
Strain the mixture to remove solids.
Bottle the liquid for use.

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

What each ingredient does

Brandy: Serves as the alcohol base that extracts and preserves the botanical flavors.
Gentian root: Provides the intensely bitter flavor that defines the finished bitters.
Virginia snakeroot: Adds aromatic, spicy, and slightly bitter notes to the infusion.
Cochineal: Contributes red coloring to the finished liquid.

“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.