Why it works: Brandy and white wine work together. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 620 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓
How to Make Lavender Water
Ingredients
Directions
Sprinkle the dried lavender leaves with brandy, white wine, and rose water.
Leave the mixture in a large bottle, well corked, for one week.
After a week, distill the mixture and bottle it tightly.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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.
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Brandy + white winetop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together620 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Lavender + rosetop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together149 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Brandy + rosetop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together560 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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White wine + rosetop 17% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together162 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Lavender + brandytop 29% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together16 recipes
Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Dried lavender leaves
- Provide the main floral aroma that flavours the finished water.
- Brandy
- Extracts aromatic compounds from the lavender and helps preserve the mixture.
- White wine
- Adds liquid that helps draw out the lavender's aromatic oils during steeping.
- Rose water
- Adds a delicate floral note that complements the lavender aroma.
The step that matters
Leave the mixture corked for one week. Steeping in alcohol draws aromatic oils out of the lavender slowly. A tightly corked bottle keeps the aroma from escaping and limits evaporation, so the infusion stays concentrated before distilling.
“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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