Name: Another Way to Make Ratafia
Ingredients: 500 peach kernels; 1 gallon pale brandy; 2 quarts frontignac; 1 pint orange-flower water; 1 pound plus 3/4 pound double-refined sugar

Why it works: Peach and orange match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 385 recipes. Both carry pinene, which smells pine, turpentine. The science ↓

Another Way to Make Ratafia

Ingredients

Directions

Steep and combine

Steep the peach kernels in the pale brandy.
Add the frontignac, orange-flower water, and sugar.

Rest and strain

Shake the mixture daily for six weeks.
Strain through a jelly bag until clear.

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.

Peach + orangetop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together385 recipes

Shared aroma: pinene (pine, turpentine).
Peach + brandytop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together339 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Brandy + orangetop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,706 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Peach + sugartop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,308 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).

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

Peach kernels: Provide the main nutty, almond-like flavour that the brandy draws out.
Pale brandy: Extracts flavour from the kernels and keeps the finished liqueur stable.
Frontignac: Adds a fruity, floral wine character and extra liquid to the blend.
Orange-flower water: Adds a delicate floral aroma to the finished liqueur.
Double-refined sugar: Adds sweetness and a smoother, rounder body to the liqueur.

The step that matters

Shaking the mixture daily. Regular agitation keeps the kernels in contact with the alcohol so flavour is extracted evenly over the long steep.

Swap the orange

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

Vanillafits better
Apricotfits better
Plumfits better
Orangethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against peach, brandy, 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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Another Way to Make Ratafia