Why it works: Sugar and brandy are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 19% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,939 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓
Raspberry Brandy
Ingredients
Directions
Make the juice
Pick fine dry raspberries and place them in a stone jar.
Submerge the jar in a kettle of water or place it on a hot hearth until the juice runs.
Strain the juice.
Sweeten and finish
Add ½ pound of sugar for every pint of juice.
Bring the mixture to a boil.
Skim off any foam.
Mix equal parts of the juice and brandy.
Shake well.
Bottle.
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.
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Sugar + brandytop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together11,939 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Sugar and brandy 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
- Raspberries
- Provide the flavour and aroma that define the spirit.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and balances the tartness of the juice.
- Brandy
- Adds alcohol that carries the fruit aroma and preserves the mixture.
The step that matters
Skim off any foam. Foam that forms while the sugar and juice boil contains impurities and proteins that can cloud the final liquor and spoil its clarity. Removing it as it forms keeps the bottled brandy clear and clean-tasting.
“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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