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Mock Arrack, &C

A mixed alcoholic beverage made with lemon, sugar, water, Madeira or Sherry, rum, and brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Sherry and rum match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 146 recipes. Both carry ethyl isobutyrate, which smells fruity, ethereal. The science ↓

Mock Arrack, &C

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Zest the yellow rind of the lemon and mix it with the sugar.

  2. Squeeze the lemon juice into the sugar and mix thoroughly.

Make the arrack

  1. Add 1 cup of boiling water and stir until cold.

  2. Mix in equal parts of Madeira or Sherry, rum, and brandy.

  3. Add more boiling water to reach the desired strength.

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. Sherry + rumtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together146 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  2. Rum + brandytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  3. Sherry + brandytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,209 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  4. Sugar + rumtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,908 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Lemon + sherrytop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,273 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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

What each ingredient does

Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the sweet, spirit-heavy mixture.
Loaf sugar
Sweetens the punch and helps draw lemon oil from the zest.
Madeira or sherry
Contributes fortified-wine body and nutty, oxidised flavour.
Rum
Adds the spirit's strength and molasses-like aroma.
Brandy
Adds fruity depth and warmth to the blend.

The step that matters

Add more boiling water to reach the desired strength. Water dilutes the alcohol and softens the sharpness, so adding it gradually lets the cook taste and stop at the balance they want, since a strong spirit blend cannot be easily corrected once over-diluted.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Pineapplefits better
  3. Apricotfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, sherry, rum, brandy. 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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