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Drink

French Parfait Amour, or Perfect Love

A French liqueur made with citrus rinds, cochineal, brandy, sugar, bitter almonds, spices, and alum.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and coriander match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,498 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

French Parfait Amour, or Perfect Love

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the infusion

  1. Pound the rinds of the cedraties or lemons in a mortar.

  2. Infuse the rinds and cochineal in the brandy for 24 hours.

Make the syrup

  1. Melt the sugar in boiling water until dissolved.

  2. Add the pounded bitter almonds to the syrup.

  3. Pour the syrup into the brandy and add cinnamon and coriander seeds.

Clarify and finish

  1. Dissolve roche alum and crystal mineral in hot water, then add half of the clear liquid to the mixture.

  2. Let the liquor stand for 6 days, then strain it through a flannel jelly bag.

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. Lemon + coriandertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,498 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Almond + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,514 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Cinnamon + coriandertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,635 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Lemon + cinnamontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,950 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  5. Almond + coriandertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together563 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine (cocoa, roasted).

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

What each ingredient does

Cedraties or lemons
Rinds supply the citrus aroma and flavour once infused in the brandy.
Brandy
Acts as the solvent that draws flavour from the rinds and cochineal.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and body to the finished liqueur.
Bitter almonds
Contribute a distinctive nutty, almond aroma to the liqueur.
Cochineal
Gives the liqueur its red colour.
Cinnamon
Adds warm spice aroma and flavour.

The step that matters

Let the liquor stand for 6 days, then strain it through a flannel jelly bag. Standing lets the mixture settle and clear before straining, so the finished liqueur is bright rather than cloudy. Straining through fine flannel removes the solids that would otherwise remain suspended.

Swap the coriander

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

  1. Cardamomfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Allspicefits better
  4. Corianderthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lemon, brandy, sugar, almond, cinnamon. 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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