Name: Cinnamon Essence
Ingredients: 1 teaspoon oil of cinnamon; 2 ounces best French brandy or proof spirits of wine

Why it works: Cinnamon and brandy are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,199 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Cinnamon Essence

Ingredients

1 teaspoon oil of cinnamon
2 ounces best French brandy or proof spirits of wine

Directions

Combine the oil of cinnamon with the brandy or spirits in a small bottle, then shake well to mix thoroughly.

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.

Cinnamon + brandytop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,199 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

Oil of cinnamon: Provides the concentrated cinnamon aroma and flavour that defines the essence.
Brandy or proof spirits of wine: Acts as the solvent that dissolves the cinnamon oil so it blends into a liquid flavouring.

“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.