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Angelica Liqueur

A liqueur made by steeping angelica stalks in spirit, then infusing with sugar, spices, and lemon zest.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Angelica Liqueur

Ingredients

Directions

Infuse

  1. Steep the chopped angelica stalks in the spirit for six weeks, well covered.

  2. Strain the mixture, pressing the angelica to extract all the juice.

Flavour and finish

  1. Return the juice to the jar and add sugar, cinnamon, mace, cloves, and lemon zest.

  2. Infuse for an additional period as desired.

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. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

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

  3. Angelica + cinnamontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together80 recipes

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

  4. Angelica + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together84 recipes

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

  5. Mace + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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

What each ingredient does

Angelica stalks
Provide the main aromatic flavour and bitterness that the spirit draws out.
Spirit
Acts as the solvent that extracts flavour from the angelica and spices.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and softens the sharp, bitter edge of the infusion.
Cinnamon
Contributes warm, woody aroma to the finished liqueur.
Cloves
Add pungent, warm spice aroma that complements the angelica.

The step that matters

Pressing the angelica when straining. Pressing the steeped stalks squeezes out the flavourful liquid they hold. Leaving it behind wastes flavour, while over-pressing can release excess plant bitterness and cloudiness into the liqueur.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Gingerfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against angelica, spirit, sugar, cinnamon, clove, 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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