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Ratafia De Goings. — Ratafia of Quinces.

A quince-based liqueur made by infusing quince juice with brandy, sugar, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and ginger match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,380 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Ratafia De Goings. — Ratafia of Quinces.

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the juice

  1. Pare and pound good quinces, then remove the cores.

  2. Wring the quinces in a new linen cloth to extract the juice.

Make the ratafia

  1. Combine the juice with brandy and sugar in a jar.

  2. Add cinnamon, ginger, and mace to the mixture.

  3. Seal the jar and let it infuse for 10 to 12 days.

  4. Strain the mixture through a filtering bag and bottle 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

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.

  1. Cinnamon + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,380 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Quince + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together199 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Quince + gingertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together62 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

  4. Cinnamon + macetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  5. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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

Quince juice
Provides the fruit flavour and acidity that forms the base of the drink.
Brandy
Acts as the alcohol base that extracts and preserves the fruit and spice flavours.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the tartness of the quince juice and the alcohol.

The step that matters

Seal the jar and let it infuse for 10 to 12 days. The mixture needs time for alcohol to draw flavour out of the quince and spices. Opening the jar early or cutting the infusion short leaves the ratafia thin and harsh.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Clovefits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Allspicefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against quince, brandy, sugar, cinnamon, ginger. 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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