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Drink

Shrub Brandy

A sweetened brandy shrub made with lemon and lime juice, sugar, wine, rum, maraschino, champagne, and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and lime match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,289 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Shrub Brandy

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. Combine 2 quarts of brandy, the juice of 5 lemons, and the peels of 2 lemons in a large bottle. Seal and let stand for 3 days.

  2. Add 3 pints of white wine, 1½ pounds of loaf sugar, and ½ nutmeg. Strain through a flannel bag.

Add the lime and sugar

  1. Soak the rind of 20 limes in 24 glasses of hot French brandy for 24 hours.

  2. Add the juice of 48 limes, 6 pounds of fine pounded sugar, 12 glasses of rum, 12 glasses of maraschino, 6 bottles of champagne, and 6 bottles of water. Let stand for 6 to 8 days in a vessel.

Finish and bottle

  1. Strain clear through a flannel bag. Bottle and cork well.

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. Lemon + limetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,289 recipes

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

  2. White wine + champagnetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together96 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  3. Rum + champagnetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together137 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  4. Brandy + rumtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Brandy + champagnetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together169 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

What each ingredient does

Brandy
Forms the spirit base that carries and preserves the other flavors.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the drink and balances the sugar.
Loaf sugar
Sweetens the base and rounds out the sharpness of the citrus.
Limes
Lime rind and juice add aromatic oils and acidity.
Fine pounded sugar
Sweetens the punch and dissolves into the liquid for a smooth texture.
Champagne
Adds effervescence and a light, dry lift to the finished drink.

The step that matters

Straining through the flannel bag. Straining removes sediment and pulp so the finished liquid turns clear. Skipping or rushing this step leaves the drink cloudy and gritty.

Swap the lime

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (brandy, lemon, white wine, sugar, nutmeg, rum, champagne):

  1. Pineapplefits better
  2. Orangefits better
  3. Vanillafits better
  4. Limethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against brandy, lemon, white wine, sugar, nutmeg, rum, champagne. 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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