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Spirit of Savoury Spice

A spirit infused with black pepper, allspice, and nutmeg in brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Allspice and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,331 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Spirit of Savoury Spice

Ingredients

Directions

Combine

  1. Combine the black pepper, allspice, and nutmeg in a jar.

  2. Pour in the brandy or proof spirit.

Infuse

  1. Seal the jar and let it infuse for ten days.

  2. Shake the jar gently every few days.

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. Allspice + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,331 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Pepper + allspicetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Nutmeg + brandytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,311 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  5. Allspice + brandytop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together931 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

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

What each ingredient does

Black pepper
Provides sharp, pungent heat and aroma that the spirit gradually draws out.
Allspice
Adds warm, aromatic flavour from its volatile oils.
Nutmeg
Contributes warm, sweet aroma from its volatile oils.
Brandy
Acts as the solvent, extracting aroma and flavour compounds from the spices.

The step that matters

Letting the jar infuse fully. Alcohol extracts flavour and aroma compounds from whole or ground spices slowly. Cutting the ten days short leaves the spirit weak and the spice flavour underdeveloped.

Swap the nutmeg

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

  1. Clovefits better
  2. Nutmegthe original
  3. Cinnamonfits about as well
  4. Thymefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, allspice, 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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