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Prime Irish Usquebaugh

A fortified Irish brandy infused with saffron, liquorice, jujubes, raisins, coriander seeds, cinnamon, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Raisin and cinnamon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,390 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓

Prime Irish Usquebaugh

Ingredients

Directions

Make the infusion

  1. Combine the brandy, saffron, liquorice, jujubes, raisins, coriander seeds, and cinnamon in a large glass or stone bottle.

  2. Melt the sugar in the quart of water. Add the melted sugar to the mixture.

Infuse and strain

  1. Let the mixture infuse for three weeks.

  2. After three weeks, pour off the clear liquid.

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. Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  2. Saffron + coriandertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together381 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Saffron + cinnamontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together406 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Coriander + cinnamontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,635 recipes

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

  5. Saffron + raisintop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Brandy
Acts as the alcoholic base that extracts flavour from the spices and fruit.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the strong spice and alcohol flavours.
Saffron
Contributes a golden colour and a distinctive floral aroma.
Raisins
Add sweetness and fruity depth as they soften in the spirit.
Liquorice
Adds a sweet, earthy root flavour that rounds out the infusion.

The step that matters

Infuse for the full three weeks. Alcohol extracts flavour from spices, fruit and roots slowly over time. Drawing the liquid off early leaves the flavour weak and unbalanced.

Swap the jujube

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (brandy, saffron, raisin, coriander, cinnamon, sugar):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against brandy, saffron, raisin, coriander, cinnamon, sugar. 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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