Name: Cinchona Wine
Ingredients: 1 oz cinchona bark, powdered; 1 oz proof spirit; 1 oz glycerine; 1 oz best brandy; 3 oz simple syrup; 9 oz distilled water; 16 oz sherry; 10 grains citric acid

Why it works: Spirit and brandy work together. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 209 recipes. Both carry ethyl benzoate, which smells sweet. The science ↓

Cinchona Wine

Ingredients

Directions

Macerate the cinchona bark in the distilled water and proof spirit for two days.
Press the mixture, then pour 1 oz more spirit and 9 oz of water over the residue and express again.
Mix the liquids and evaporate to 2 oz, then set aside in a cool place for two days.
Filter the mixture and evaporate to a thin extract consistency.
Gently mix in the glycerine, simple syrup, and citric acid.
Add the sherry and brandy, then set aside for two weeks before filtering.

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.

Spirit + brandytop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together209 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl benzoate (sweet).
Brandy + sherrytop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,209 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
Spirit + sherrytop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together35 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Spirit + syruptop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together141 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Brandy + syruptop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together561 recipes