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 of Currants
Ingredients
Directions
Combine the brandy, currant juice, sugar, cinnamon, and cloves in a jar.
Mix well and let it sit for one month.
After a month, strain the mixture and bottle it for use.
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.
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Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together14,189 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
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Brandy + curranttop 7% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together3,057 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
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Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together30,779 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Brandy + cinnamontop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,199 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
-
Brandy + clovetop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,362 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
Sugar and cinnamon 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
- Brandy
- Serves as the alcohol base that extracts flavour from the fruit and spices and keeps the liqueur stable.
- Currant juice
- Provides the main fruit flavour, tartness, and colour of the finished liqueur.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness that balances the currant's tartness and rounds out the alcohol's sharpness.
- Cinnamon
- Adds warm aromatic flavour that infuses into the spirit during steeping.
- Cloves
- Adds a strong aromatic spice flavour that infuses into the spirit during steeping.
The step that matters
Letting the mixture sit for one month. Alcohol extracts flavour from fruit and spices slowly, so cutting the steeping short leaves the liqueur weak, harsh, and unbalanced. The full rest allows the flavours to blend and mellow.
Swap the currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (brandy, sugar, cinnamon, clove):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Quincefits better
- Currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against brandy, sugar, cinnamon, clove. 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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