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Brandy, Lemon

A brandy liqueur flavored with lemon rind, lemon juice, clear syrup, and optional saffron.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and saffron match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 538 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Brandy, Lemon

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare and steep

  1. Pare the rinds of the lemons very thinly.

  2. Steep the rinds in the brandy for six weeks.

Finish and bottle

  1. Strain the mixture and add the strained juice of the lemons.

  2. Mix in the clear syrup and saffron if desired.

  3. Bottle and seal the mixture.

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 + saffrontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together538 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Syrup + saffrontop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together68 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Lemon + syruptop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,235 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Brandy + syruptop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together561 recipes
  5. Lemon + brandytop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,351 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

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

What each ingredient does

Lemons
Rind oils give aroma and citrus flavour, while the juice adds acidity that brightens the liqueur.
Brandy
Acts as the solvent that draws flavour from the rinds and, with its alcohol, helps preserve the liqueur.
Clear syrup
Adds sweetness that balances the lemon's acidity and gives the liqueur a smooth body.

The step that matters

Pare the rinds very thinly. The white pith beneath the peel is bitter. Paring only the thin yellow zest keeps the steeped flavour bright and clean rather than harsh.

Swap the saffron

The recipe marks saffron as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lemon, brandy, syrup):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Saffronthe original
  3. Gingerfits about as well
  4. Nutmegfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against lemon, brandy, syrup. 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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