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Compound Spice Bitters, to Make

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and ginger match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,038 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Compound Spice Bitters, to Make

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Finely powder all the ingredients.

  2. Mix the powdered ingredients together.

  3. Add an equal amount of finely powdered loaf sugar.

  4. Pass the mixture through a sieve.

  5. For dosage, take 1 teaspoon in warm or cold water, wine, or any other prepared beverage.

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. Clove + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Berry + gingertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together23 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Ginger + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,800 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Berry + clovetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together26 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

Swap the berry

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (clove, ginger, pepper, sugar):

  1. Limefits better
  2. Lemonfits better
  3. Orangefits better
  4. Berrythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against clove, ginger, pepper, sugar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

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