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Cherry-Vanilla Bitters Recipe

While some recipes for bitters call for gentian and other hard-to-find aromatics, you probably have almost everything you need to make this recipe on your spice...

By chow · From Open Recipes · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Vanilla and star anise work together. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and 84 recipes mention both. Both carry 4-methoxybenzaldehyde, which smells sweet, anise. The science ↓

The recipe

About 3 cups

Ingredients

Directions

Step-by-step directions aren't available for this recipe. See the full recipe at the source →

By chow. Recipe from Open Recipes.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Vanilla + star anisetop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together84 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-methoxybenzaldehyde (sweet, anise).

  2. Star anise + clovetop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together184 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Star anise + anisetop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together6 recipes

    Shared aroma: cis-anethole (anise).

  4. Vanilla + berrytop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together50 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  5. Anise + clovetop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together90 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

Flavor stand-ins for the berry

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rye, vanilla, beans, star anise, anise, clove):

  1. Orangebetter flavor fit
  2. Figbetter flavor fit
  3. Cherrybetter flavor fit
  4. Berrythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rye, vanilla, beans, star anise, anise, clove. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).