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Ratafia, Cherry

A cherry liqueur made by infusing cherries, bitter almonds, cinnamon, cloves, sugar, brandy, and white wine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Ratafia, Cherry

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Bruise the black cherries until all the kernels are broken.

  2. Add the bitter almonds, cinnamon, cloves, and white sugar to the cherries.

  3. Pour in the brandy and old white wine.

Infuse and bottle

  1. Let the mixture infuse for a few days, stirring frequently.

  2. Filter the liquid and bottle it.

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 + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Almond + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,514 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Brandy + white winetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together620 recipes

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

  4. Cinnamon + sugartop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Almond + clovetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,605 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

Cinnamon and sugar 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

Black cherries
Supply the main fruit flavor and juice that forms the base of the liqueur.
Bitter almonds or peach kernels
Add a nutty, almond-like aroma from the kernels, which bruising releases into the liquid.
White sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the tartness of the cherries and spirits.
Brandy
Acts as the alcoholic base that extracts and preserves the flavors during infusion.
Old white wine
Contributes body and liquid volume to dilute the spirit and carry the flavors.

The step that matters

Bruise the black cherries until all the kernels are broken. Breaking the kernels releases their aromatic oils into the liquid during infusion. Cherries that are only partly crushed give a weaker, less rounded flavor.

Swap the almond

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

  1. Almondthe original
  2. Chestnutfits about as well
  3. Walnutfits less well
  4. Beansfits less well

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