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Drink

Mock Arrack

A spiced rum and brandy infusion with raisins, spices, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,686 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Mock Arrack

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Dissolve the flowers of Benjamin in the rum.

  2. In a large container, steep the raisins, nutmeg, cloves, cardamoms, orange rind, brown sugar-candy, and tincture of saffron in the brandy or whisky.

Infuse and finish

  1. Bruise the spices and infuse the mixture for two to three weeks, shaking daily.

  2. After infusion, filter the mixture for use.

  3. For a red color or preferred flavor, substitute the tincture of saffron with syrup of clove gilliflowers.

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. Nutmeg + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Clove + cardamomtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,114 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Nutmeg + cardamomtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together249 recipes

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

  4. Cardamom + orangetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together228 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Rum + brandytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,058 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Brandy or whisky
Forms the spirit base that extracts flavour from the spices and fruit over time.
Raisins
Add sweetness and body, and their sugars soften the finished drink's mouthfeel.
Brown sugar-candy
Adds sweetness and rounded, caramel-like depth to the infusion.
Cloves
Contribute a warm, pungent aroma that dominates the spice character.
Tincture of saffron
Gives the drink its golden colour.

The step that matters

Infuse for the full two to three weeks. Alcohol draws flavour and aroma out of spices and fruit slowly. Stopping early leaves the spices underextracted, so the drink tastes thin and harsh, and the raw spice notes stay sharp.

Swap the clove

The recipe marks clove as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rum, brandy, raisin, nutmeg, cardamom, orange, sugar):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Clovethe original
  3. Allspicefits about as well
  4. Gingerfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against rum, brandy, raisin, nutmeg, cardamom, orange, sugar. 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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