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Ratafia, Quince

A quince-based liqueur made by macerating quinces with sugar, brandy, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Quince and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 199 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Ratafia, Quince

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the quince

  1. Grate the quinces to the core and sprinkle with caster sugar. Let it stand for 24 hours.

  2. Wring the mixture to extract all the liquid.

Flavour and bottle

  1. Mix the liquid with an equal quantity of brandy and add loaf sugar.

  2. Add either a piece of stick cinnamon or angelica.

  3. Let it stand for a while, then filter and bottle.

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. Quince + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together199 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Quince + brandytop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together91 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  4. Brandy + cinnamontop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,199 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  5. Sugar + brandytop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together11,939 recipes

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

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Quinces
Provide the juice and the fruity aroma that forms the base of the ratafia.
Caster sugar
Draws liquid out of the grated quince and sweetens the finished drink.
Brandy
Adds alcohol that preserves the liquid and carries the flavour.
Loaf sugar
Adds further sweetness to the mixed liquid.

The step that matters

Wring the mixture to extract all the liquid. Squeezing out as much juice as possible from the grated fruit and sugar gives the base liquid its body and flavour. Leftover juice left in the pulp dilutes the final ratafia and reduces its yield.

Swap the quince

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Quincethe original

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