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Ratafia De Noix

A walnut liqueur made by steeping crushed green walnuts in brandy, sugar, cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg for two months.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Ratafia De Noix

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Crush the green walnuts.

  2. Steep the crushed walnuts in a jar with a tight lid for two months with brandy, sugar, cinnamon, cloves, and grated nutmeg.

  3. After two months, strain and filter the mixture before bottling.

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 + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Walnut + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,230 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Walnut + cinnamontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,147 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Green walnuts
Provide the main flavour and bitter-sweet aroma as they steep in the spirit.
Brandy
Acts as the solvent that extracts flavour from the walnuts and spices over the long steep.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the bitterness of the walnuts and spirit.
Cinnamon
Contributes warm, woody aroma to the finished liqueur.
Cloves
Add pungent, warm aroma that rounds out the spiced character.

The step that matters

Crushing the green walnuts. Crushing breaks open the walnut tissue so the brandy can extract flavour and colour. Whole nuts would steep far more slowly and unevenly over the two months.

Swap the walnut

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

  1. Almondfits better
  2. Chestnutfits better
  3. Pistachiofits about as well
  4. Walnutthe original

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