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Species for Making Bitters

A bitter infusion made with dried orange peel, cinnamon, gentian root, cardamom, and brandy or boiling water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and cardamom match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,299 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Species for Making Bitters

Ingredients

Directions

Combine

  1. Combine 2 tablespoons of dried orange peel and 1 stick of white cinnamon in a container.

  2. Add 2 tablespoons of gentian root and 1 tablespoon of lesser cardamom.

Steep

  1. Pour in 1 quart of brandy and let it steep for a few days.

  2. For a different version, use 1½ pints of boiling water instead of brandy, adding the same ingredients.

Finish

  1. Strain before using.

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 + cardamomtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,299 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Cardamom + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together405 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Orange + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,634 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  4. Orange + cardamomtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together228 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Orange + cinnamontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,437 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Dried orange peel
Supplies citrusy aroma and bright flavour that balances the bitterness.
Gentian root
Provides the characteristic bitter flavour that defines the drink.
Brandy
Acts as the solvent that draws flavour and aromatic compounds out of the botanicals.
Lesser cardamom
Adds a warm, floral aroma.
White cinnamon
Adds a sweet, warm spice aroma.

The step that matters

Steeping in brandy. Alcohol slowly pulls aromatic and bitter compounds out of botanicals. Steeping too long can make the result harsher and more bitter than intended, so taste during the steep before straining.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Vanillafits about as well
  2. Lemonthe original
  3. Figfits about as well
  4. Limefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against orange, cinnamon, cardamom, brandy. 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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