Name: Prime Irish Usquebaugh
Ingredients: 3 pints of brandy; ½ ounce of saffron; ½ ounce of liquorice; ½ ounce of jujubes; ½ ounce of raisins; ¼ ounce of coriander seeds; ¼ ounce of cinnamon; 1½ pounds of sugar; 1 quart of water

Why it works: Raisin and cinnamon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,390 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓

Prime Irish Usquebaugh

Ingredients

Directions

Infuse

Combine the brandy, saffron, liquorice, jujubes, raisins, coriander seeds, and cinnamon in a large glass or stone bottle.
Melt the sugar in the quart of water and add it to the bottle.
Let the mixture infuse for three weeks.

Finish

After three weeks, pour off the clear liquid.

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.

Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,390 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Saffron + coriandertop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together381 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Saffron + cinnamontop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together406 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Coriander + cinnamontop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,635 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Saffron + raisintop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together92 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Brandy: Acts as the alcoholic base that extracts and carries the flavours of the other ingredients.
Saffron: Adds distinctive aroma and golden colour to the liquid.
Sugar: Adds sweetness and balances the strong, spiced alcohol.
Liquorice: Contributes a sweet, aniseed-like flavour and some body.
Raisins: Add sweetness and fruity depth as they soften and release their sugars.

Swap the jujube

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (brandy, saffron, raisin, coriander, cinnamon, sugar):

Limefits better
Lemonfits better
Orangefits better
Jujubethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against brandy, saffron, raisin, coriander, cinnamon, 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.