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Macaroni Cordial

A liqueur made by infusing bitter almonds and angelica root in brandy, then distilling and mixing with a sugar syrup and lemon essence.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Angelica and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 189 recipes. Both carry (e,e)-2,4-decadienal, which smells fatty, deep fried. The science ↓

Macaroni Cordial

Ingredients

Directions

Infuse and distill

  1. Infuse the bitter almonds and angelica root in the brandy for 14 days, shaking the vessel frequently.

  2. After 14 days, distill the mixture in a water bath to obtain 5 pints of infused spirit.

Make the cordial

  1. Make a syrup by mixing the sugar, eau-de-mille-fleurs, and distilled water.

  2. Combine the syrup with the infused spirit and add the essence of lemons.

  3. Filter the mixture through blotting paper to achieve clarity.

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. Angelica + lemontop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together189 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

  2. Almond + angelicatop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together135 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  3. Almond + lemontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Brandy + almondtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,969 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).

  5. Almond + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,679 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

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

What each ingredient does

Brandy
Serves as the alcoholic base that extracts and carries the flavours of the almonds and angelica.
Bitter almonds
Supply the characteristic almond aroma and flavour during the infusion.
Sugar
Provides sweetness and body, balancing the strong alcohol and bitter notes.
Eau-de-mille-fleurs
Adds a floral aromatic note that rounds out the cordial's flavour.

The step that matters

Filter through blotting paper. Clarity depends on removing fine suspended particles after the sugar and spirit are combined; rushing this leaves the cordial cloudy. Blotting paper is slow, so the liquid needs time to pass through fully.

Swap the almond

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

  1. Pistachiofits about as well
  2. Almondthe original
  3. Chestnutfits less well
  4. Walnutfits less well

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